How is Dragonball viewed in the public eye?

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.

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RoarkVegeta
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How is Dragonball viewed in the public eye?

Post by RoarkVegeta » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:27 pm

Topic. Basically, what's the response you get when you say "I like Dragonball."?

For me? I can gurantee I'm the only fan in my school. It doesn't fly. And not just Dragonball. All of my friends use "Pogaymon" when refering to Pokemon, which pisses me off to no end.

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Freeza.exe
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Post by Freeza.exe » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:30 pm

"AW SHIT DAWG VEGETA WAS ONE BAD ASS MOFO FIRIN OFF DEM LAZORZ LIKE PEW PEW PEW MAN WHEN HE DESTROYED DAT ANDROID CLOWN THING DAT WAS OFF DA CHAIN YO!"- Onlooker

That pretty much sums up every experience I've had when bringing it up at my school.
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Amigo Ten
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Post by Amigo Ten » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:30 pm

Assuming they've even heard of Dragonball, the usual opinion would seem to be "That kids cartoon?". Which is an appropriate response really.

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Post by nathantheguitarist » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:50 pm

I actually thought no one ever gave a shit about Dragonball anymore, only until I found out about two or three weeks ago the local library was having a Dragonball get together thing for "middle through high school-ers" that weekend. My little brother, who's still in school, thought it was kinda weird considering he only knows like 4 people who like Dragonball (2 of which are at least 20 years old).

But yeah, I'll try and get a pic of this flyer later in the week and post it here if anyone wants to see it for all of it's obscureness.

I almost went. But the flyer advertised that they were holding trivia (which I could only have imagined what that would've been like), watching "classic" anime episodes (of which I assume meant for Dragonball [of which I assumed the Season Sets {of which I hate with a burning passion}]), and top it all off the little flyer ended with "stay for the movie!" with a big pic of Evolution's cover on there. I guess I decided I'm too hardcore to care about the general public's opinion of Dragonball: my only justification for not going to this little shindig at the library? Wow, I'm an ass lol.

It was weird though. And they advertised there being something to do with cosplay. I doubt that anyone would've dressed up other than maybe the person/people organizing the whole thing.

So yeah, anyone from Payson, AZ? :P

:oops:

I would feel really bad if someone WAS from Payson, and they read my post. And then I'd probably feel worse for not going if they tell me it was actually good and fun and all that lol.
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Post by ShinRogafuken » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:56 pm

I get teased at for it.

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Post by Rod » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:58 pm

Freeza.exe wrote:"AW SHIT DAWG VEGETA WAS ONE BAD ASS MOFO FIRIN OFF DEM LAZORZ LIKE PEW PEW PEW MAN WHEN HE DESTROYED DAT ANDROID CLOWN THING DAT WAS OFF DA CHAIN YO!"- Onlooker

That pretty much sums up every experience I've had when bringing it up at my school.
This

:lol:

Unless it's an "otaku" which there are a lot where I live, and they love it

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Bura
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Post by Bura » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:17 pm

They LIKED it. But it's all Naruto/Bleach now.
I'm studying a education about Graphic Design, and it has quite a few anime fans.
I kept me liking anime and DragonBall a secret on my previous schools.

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Post by The Time Traveller » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:24 pm

I recently got into college, some are pretty accepting, but one dickhead I had to sit with kept calling them Chinese cartoons, and I corrected him like 4 times >.>

One of the kids in my class, don't know WHERE he's been for the past few days though, said he had a few DVDs of DBZ. :D

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Post by Raki » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:40 pm

If it's "Drag-on Ball ZEE", it's viewed upon as a joke by otaku outside Japan and average people alike. Although some of my former co-workers spoke well of the series.
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Post by SSj_Rambo » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:54 pm

At my school, I know that everyone watched it when they were seven, and every once in a blue moon I'll hear a joke ("I'm 'bouts to go Dragonball Z on your ass"... seriously), but aside from the (frickin' weird) people in my Japanese class, there would be absolutely no respect from anyone who found out I/anyone else was still a fan of any cartoon/anime. Eh.

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Post by jjgp1112 » Sun Sep 13, 2009 5:56 pm

Most people in my school either like or are neutral towards it. Every time I or someone else brings it up, everyone talks about the good ol days.

And every time we're clowning on someone with a funny looking hairline, we'll say, "Man, he has that Vegeta hairline!" It's pretty much the name for a V-shaped hairline in my school.
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Post by Rory » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:06 pm

I have a few friends in college who like it. They're actually really cool, casual guys, not uber nerds.
Shame their attitude towards it is this:
Friend A: Can't watch episodes without Super Saiyans, and discards anything pre-Namek.
Friend B: Loves Broli, claiming him to be the best in the series, next to Vegeta.
But, it's all good, we play Burst Limit to no end, and are looking forward to DBO.
As for everybody else, it seems to be a form of nostalgia now, there isn't much hate for it, on the contrary, most people I know will reminisce about episodes (with poor memories might I add).

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Post by SonGokuGT » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:26 pm

90% of my experience:

"Oh, that Japanimation cartoon with buff, spiky haired guys screaming and shooting fireballs?"

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Post by JAPPO » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:29 pm

People view it as a negative if I mention I like DBZ. So I don't. Doesn't really affect my life. :/
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Post by Chuquita » Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:39 pm

Well, I found a volume of DB stuck in the "health and fitness" section of the bookstore I part-time at last night as everyone was cleaning up, so I guess people still read it.

Also realized I could never be an English teacher because I heard someone mention "kamehameha" as we were leaving but they pronounced it ala Season 3 (with the "ay"'s) and I was tempted to say something but didn't because it didn't really matter in that context.
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Post by B » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:39 pm

A cool 90's show to those who don't pay attention, a piece of shit to the rest.
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Post by Hellspawn28 » Sun Sep 13, 2009 7:55 pm

Before I left school a year ago, most people would say "Over 9000" when the word DB pops up. I think I was the only very few people in my high school that is a fan of the series.

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Post by Bussani » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:01 pm

Amigo Ten wrote:Assuming they've even heard of Dragonball, the usual opinion would seem to be "That kids cartoon?". Which is an appropriate response really.
Pretty much this. If they're not fans of anime or animation to begin with, then it's just, "that kid's show with giant muscle guys smacking each other and rock n roll music or something."

If they're anime fans, on the other hand, you get a similar response. "That kid's show with giant muscular guys smacking each other and no plot."

As Amigo Ten says, 'kid's cartoon' is actually pretty accurate, but most of the time they still obviously don't understand it. It's worse that it's looked down upon by other anime fans, too. They often see it as something that got you into anime, but not something you should like later; like you should be watching more 'adult, mature things', like Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion or, worst case scenario, Naruto. These are the same people who say, "it's not cartoons, it's anime."

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Post by Saiyaman Prime » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:10 pm

In real life a lot of people used to watch it and liked it. Though only DBZ and not DB or GT.
Talking to people on the internet they will just say it has no plot and is not a "real" anime. Most of the time.

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Post by SuperSaiyan3Goku » Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:27 pm

There wasn't that many people in my High School that even talked about DBZ, like they had no clue it existed. There was only one person who actually heard of DBZ, knew about Majin Buu, so that means he knew something about the show.

Before High School started for me, I had a friend in Grade School (4th to 8th grade) who liked Dragonball/Z almost as much as me. I remember going to sleep over at his house (Which was huge, even had a built-in pool for pool parties) and we just went to his Basement and watched an episode of Dragonball GT that was with the Budokai 2 Official Guide. There was even a TV in where I think his Mom worked, so we watched my Dragonball GT tapes of the Super 17 and Shadow Dragon sagas. 8) Unfortunately, he had to move from that house to another one because he went to this expensive High School that I just got out of (Only there for my Freshman year) to go to another School near where I lived. He probably Graduated from that School, but I don't have a clue.

I wonder if he's still interested in it at all, been a few years since we've seen each other.
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