What's The First Episode You Watched? (When/Dub/Scene?)

[Char Aznable]

My memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I believe I caught an episode of Dragon Ball one afternoon. I can't remember which episode it could've possibly been though, but obviously it was one of the first thirteen.

Fast forward maybe one or two years later, I was getting ready for school one morning and caught the second episode of Dragon Ball Z. Ironically, as Goku and Piccolo were in their standoff with Raditz as he gloated over how strong he was, I remember thinking '...when are they going to get back to finding the Dragon Balls?'

Oh, grade school self. If only you knew.

[SonGokuGT]

Dragonball Episode 1 in Castilian Spanish when it first aired in Madrid.

[piccolo-san785]

I don't exactly remember the episode number but I think it was around when the Ginyu Force arrived on namek.

[linkdude20002001]

First episode, Dragon Ball; 1996 I guess?; The second NA English dub (Not Harmony Gold, the next one - was it Ocean doing that? I can't remember.); from the opening credits baby.

It was the FUNimation dub (first attempt) and it aired in 1995, not 1996. I began with that myself. I only watched the first episode though. I thought it was weird. Probably 'cause of the odd looking, shaky underwear, and the fact that Gokuh had a tail. Lol.

[ChouGohan]

I could be making this up because the memory feels hazy, but looking on an episode list with DB Wiki to help me, it was Episode 127 ("Borrowed Powers") of the Cartoon Network dub to help me, it was October 6, 2000. That feels about right, anyway, it was the episode Cell absorbs that man in front of Piccolo, and the earliest one I remember. Oddly enough, as a very small kid, I didn't feel that scared when the man was being absorbed with the eerie music playing. I watched very little of Dragon Ball after that, because it was late when I managed to watch it, however, oddly enough, I became a serious fan starting September 10, 2001, which was my birthday. That was called "Warriors of the Dead", and looking at the ones coming after, I clearly remember the next few after that. It feels pretty good to remember all those good times with DBZ back in the day.

[Shiyonasan]

I don't remember the first episode I watched, because it was only part of an episode. All I remember was it was somewhere in Z during the Saiyan arc on Cartoon Network.

The first episode I saw all the way through was Episode 75 (61 in the dub), which is the one where Gohan, Kuririn, and Dende sneak off with the dragonballs while Vegeta is taking a nap. According to Wikipedia, it aired on September 21, 1999. I starting watching the series regularly after that.

Definitely not a bad episode to start off on if I do say so myself. Even though I'm a fan of the original version now, I really miss the Toonami days....

[Gaffer Tape]

The first episode I remember seeing was, I believe, dub episode #8: "Home for Infinite Losers". Or at least somewhere around that area right after Toonami first started airing DBZ. I remember at first thinking the similarly outfitted kid to the spiky-haired protagonist must be his son, but then, in the "Princess Snake's Hospitality" episode, it showed his son to be a smaller kid with a tail and a yellow tunic, so it must have been someone completely different!

I watched sporadically for a little while. I remember catching the episode where Popo and Bulma were heading to Jupiter in Kami-sama spaceship and having no idea who those characters were. It reminded me of watching reruns of Robotech where the cast would suddenly change (if only I knew why...).

[SuperSaiyan3Goku]

Oh dear Lord, making me remember my first episode, how dare you....

I remember bits and pieces from the Buu arc when it was shown on Toonami, and one that sticks out. The SSJ3 Goku episode, that made me shit my pants with excitement for what was next.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I think it was one of the episodes where Goku was fighting Freeza in Season 3 circa 1999.

[G1Ravage]

My first exposure to Dragon Ball was actually during the original syndicated run of Dragon Ball in 1995. It was airing in Las Vegas at around 11:00 AM or noonish. I was just flipping through the channels, and stopped flipping when a saw a cute, flying, blue cat sneaking around outside an RV in the middle of the desert. I thought it was hilarious, so I tried to keep watching, but it was randomly not on.

Then in 1996, I happened to randomly encounter the original run of syndicated Dragon Ball Z at 6:00 AM. I realized this was some sort of continuation of Dragon Ball, and the blue cat was still there, so I tuned in every morning, and fell in love with it.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I can't exactly remember, since it was many years ago, but I think the first full episode I had caught was way ahead in the Boo Arc, FUNimation dub, when Gohan was getting powered up by Old Kai, and Goten & Trunks were Fusion training for their fight with Boo. Before that, all I had seen of the anime was stuff off of Youtube and short clips.

[.:PoetikaL:.]

My first time witnessing Dragonball was back around 1996 or 1997, because I remember watching DBZ after viewing Mega Man when it was still on TV. Then I began watching it during the mornings (around 6:30 A.M.) on weekdays, and they mostly showed the Freeza/Ginyu Arc.

[MCDaveG]

German dub of Dragon Ball, I can't remember the number of the episode, but it was that episode where Tao Pai Pai killed General Blue with his tongue. It's around 90's.

[DB_Fan]

The first full episode I watched was episode 71 of Dragon Ball (Portugal dub), but before that, I saw a few scenes of Goku climbing Karin Tower.

[DBfan4life]

The very first episode I watched was when Goku and Piccolo were fighting Raditz. It was the ocean dub on Toonami (Man do I miss Toonami) and I just was amazed. I remember I was thinking wow that guy just shot something out of his hand (Goku using Kamehameha) and the fighting just got me hooked.

[ohaimynameiserik]

On TV I saw the FUNimation dub of DBZ, don't recall the number or title, but it's the episode in which 18 is absorbed by Cell.

[DbzFanboy]

It was I believe 97' and they were airing the Ocean dub episodes on Wb Sunday Mornings. I'm not exactly sure what episode it was but I believe it was either the filler where Vegeta is heading towards earth or when Krillin, Piccolo and Gohan were fighting Nappa.

[Jurik]

First Dragon Ball episode on his first airing on Mexico, obviously with mexican dub

[mister yummy]

It was the episode where Piccolo and Gohan are watching Yamcha fighting, and Piccolo tells gohan how to see them. It was the first Funimation dub, back in 2001 or so.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, my first exposure to Dragonball *period* was when a friend of mine brought over the videogame, "Dragonball GT: Final Bout." More on that later, though.


My first actual episode was a rerun on Cartoon Network back in late 1998/early 1999. The edited Saban Era Ocean Dub. It was the episode when Vegeta landed on Namek and killed Cui. I didn't know who anyone was (at first I thought Goku was Gohan's older brother), so I just thought Vegeta was badass and rooted for him for a while in all of his fights.

Interesting Notes:
-My friend brought over the Playstation game, "Dragonball GT: Final Bout," and that was my first exposure to Dragon Ball. There, I got to see a bunch of future characters and a bunch of characters in future forms, like Super Saiyan Goku and Final Form Freeza. Flash forward a few months, you could imagine my confusion when I see these characters and they look nothing like they do in the game. When Freeza reached his Final Form in the actual anime, I remember my mouth dropping a little, because he finally looked like how I was first introduced to him. It was kind of cool, like the game had been a glimpse into the future, and like a prophecy was coming true. I was very excited to see Goku become a Super Saiyan in the anime for the exact same reason.

-I didn't know until many years later that the phrase, "The Next Dimension," was supposed to be a cover-up for death, but not in the way you're thinking. I thought it was quite obvious that the characters were being killed and dying, and that saying things like "Next Dimension" was just a way to make the words "killing" and "dying" sound cool. I had no idea it was part of a censorship effort, and when I found that out I was like, "WHAT? That's lame! It was obvious they were dying!"

-It took me a while to figure out Gohan's relation to Goku. Like I said earlier, I thought Goku was Gohan's brother. This is because the first time I saw Chi Chi, she struck me as acting very motherly towards Goku in the hospital, and she said, "You remind me of raising Gohan when he was little." The fact that Vegeta referred to Gohan as, the "son of Kakarott" didn't help things in that regard. I assumed that this Kakarott, whoever he was, was Goku and Gohan's father and that he was either killed or hadn't appeared on screen since I started watching.

-My friend, who watched the Ocean Dub of "Dragon Ball," and all of the previous episodes, had to fill me in on who a lot of the characters were. It's funny to look back on those days when I had no idea how huge an impact the show would have on my life.