Anyone seen Dragon Ball BEFORE Ocean and Funimation Dub?

[PowerPhantom245]

Has anyone here seen Dragon Ball (original and Z) BEFORE Ocean and Funimation dub (Japanese only)?
I'm not referring to something like watching Japanese with sub on DVD first then watching with English dub; I mean like literally before their original broadcast in 1995/1996.

This may sound bizarre, but my first introduction to the franchise was BEFORE any of aforementioned English dub, but as original Japanese.
Before anyone questions, I'm NOT from (nor born) in Japan.
As early as I remember, first time watching the show was sometime during 92~93, I had a neighborhood friend who's from Japan, living in America for few years, who had decent collection of VHS they brought, where some of them comprised of anime. I went to visit his house one day, and when my friend put the tape in VCR, that where I was introduced to franchise.
I don't remember which episode I watched, but it was original series due to kid Goku and Krillin (I think it was one of Tournament Saga (22nd)), NOT Z, since they already left Japan by the time Z started.
Even though I didn't understand Japanese back then, the action and fights makes up the enjoyment of the show.

I also distinctly remember watching the show with English subtitle, NOT by Funimation, since this was before DVD release, on cable channel with Japanese shows, which my friend was subscribed. I don't remember the name of the channel, but Dragon Ball AND Z was airing on cable channel in USA, with English subtitle back then, believe it or not. Unfortunately, I don't have the recording to prove it, but it did have subtitle for a while, right til end of Frieza Saga/destruction of Namek (I think), where they removed it for rest of the series.
The channel did air til GT.
Thank to the subtitle, I managed to understand the context of the overall show and frankly, it was my first introduction to learning Japanese.

It's been 30 years so some of the info may be bit off and farfetched, but it is best as I could remember.

[Cure Dragon 255]

I did. Whatever I saw of the english dub was bizarre and off putting to me. I DID see Freeza die in English before I did in my regional dub.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It sounds like your friend showed you recordings of the show from Nippon Golden Network. They aired the Japanese version with subtitles in Hawaii before Funimation's dub premiered in 1995.

[GhostEmperorX]

There's a lot apparently, just about the whole pre-existing internet fandom back then (like one Chris Psaros of DBZ Uncensored, the proprietors of this site and its previous incarnations, Kunzait_83, etc). And they were unanimous in their disdain for all the chaos & confusion that unfolded after Funimation used nepotism to swipe the license for the series after Harmony Gold (why did this of all companies even have it in the first place?) lost it.

(Also, people here likely all know this, but the "Ocean dub" was a Funimation production as well, just in collaboration with Saban. The only time it wasn't was during the Pioneer sub-license period where they weren't involved with that production.)

So it's not really as bizarre as you may think it is, apparently it was common for North American anime fandom of the time which long predates even a lot of other Macekre's or other hack job adaptations made for cable TV (which was not what this market was, as it was direct to video). It does, however, need to be spoken of a lot more as there are numerous people who didn't (and still don't) know this (myself included at some point but I'm not even American nor was I even alive when a lot of this stuff was going down).

[PowerPhantom245]

It sounds like your friend showed you recordings of the show from Nippon Golden Network. They aired the Japanese version with subtitles in Hawaii before Funimation's dub premiered in 1995.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Go ... ite_note-5
Thanks!