Is original Dragon Ball really that unpopular?

[Cure Dragon 255]

Guys I didnt mean "NO LESS THAN 5 EPISODES" I meant "Five episodes TOPS." More than that is NOT NEEDED, you are more than free to drop anything at the first five minutes too.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's everyone's prerogative how many episodes or how many minutes into episode 1 a show has to prove itself, but the onus is on the fan of said show to give those they are recommending it for good reason why its worth sticking around for however long the show takes to "get good".

For the same reason I don't understand why people pick up random series Netflix dumps at the drop of a hat just for "something to watch", more power to them if that's how they roll but I'd rather do something else I enjoy rather than going into a show blind on the off-chance it might hook me at some point.

I don't hate One Piece, I've enjoyed what I've seen, but still haven't been sold on why it's overhyped as being the greatest thing in the history of anime, and while I'll eventually get back to it I'm not going to be rushing back to it because I'm told "just wait, it gets really good at episode 572".

Getting back to original Dragon Ball, I still have hope that there is still a lot of people out there who genuinely want it. In South Korea a new redub actually began airing last Christmas, its on Anibox Sundays at 8pm, they're airing four episodes this week, so clearly the channel must be confident as they could easily fill that quadruple timeslot with any of the movies since Battle of Gods, which are all heavy on the spectacle.

[kemuri07]

The irony of waiting for an anime to "git gud" is that the anime has to be good in the first place for it to "git gud." For example: Demon Slayer ep 19 is the episode that people commonly believe as the moment where the anime went from "decent shounen" to "hyped masterpiece." And i tend to agree with that. I remember that episode in particular it felt like everything just clicked and Tanjiro cutting that demon's head was the hypest shit imaginable. But I was only able to feel that way because I allowed myself to enjoy the series as a whole. Again, I didn't think Demon Slayer was amazing at the time, but I liked the characters and the world building and the animation and that kept me going each week until episode 19 dropped. And now I'm very much on that Demon Slayer hype train.

The problem with the "oh you gotta wait till this specific episode for it to git gud" is that it creates that expectation that you literally just have to wait for it to finally get good, which I think is a very bad way to engage with any type of show. Standing there, arms crossed acting like going through this anime is like work to get to the good part does a disservice to both the anime in question as well as you the viewer because you're not engaging with it in any meaningful way. I've been guilty of that myself.

[JulieYBM]

I think the importance of a really good first episode is often lost on a lot of fans, because not a lot of fans watch a lot of stuff, or think about factors like time.

If I am going to recommend a series with a good first episode, I'm recommending something like Re:Zero, which I think is not only a good double-length first episode, but really sets up the hook that helps keep the series so fresh.

One Piece isn't designed to be watchable. It's a disposable cartoon, that yes, has a ton of work put in, but the idea is to read the comic, not try and watch all 1,101 episodes of a cartoon. This is part of why I am so mixed on how Episodes #892+ have basically been produced during an era where the series is given a massive amount of staff and drawings per episode, but shorter and more accessible series have suffered.

[Kunzait_83]

This actually kind of seamlessly branches off into a WHOLE other tangent that warrants its own thread quite frankly, so I'll just stop here for purposes of not derailing this thread any further than it already has been.

I believe this has been done before but if you have any original ideas along those lines (which I wouldn't be surprised if you do) go for it.

Not even remotely what I was talking about or referencing.

[NeoZ Duwang]

I always assume that anybody telling me a show "gets good at episode X" actually enjoyed the show from episode 1, but something happened that made the series even better to them, so they think that anybody will love it when they get to that particular section of the story, even if they hate prior material

[Cure Dragon 255]

I always assume that anybody telling me a show "gets good at episode X" actually enjoyed the show from episode 1, but something happened that made the series even better to them, so they thing that anybody will love it when they get to that particular section of the story, even if they hate prior material

This , and this is the best take for trying out a new series.

[jjgp1112]

I think it's just the cost of escalation and the most iconic (and more importantly, marketable), series-defining moments and characters coming in much later. You can't even blame it on Funimation presenting the series out of order because even Japan puts Z front and center and treats the Kid Goku years as an afterthought.

The original sin was Toei splitting the anime to begin with.