What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

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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BlazeGogeta
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What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by BlazeGogeta » Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:51 pm

Why do you not stop watching/reading DragonBall?

I don't have one, because I'm a brand new fan. I'm just trying to see everyones reasons. Hope I can get a good read from this.

Also, if something contains spoilers, please mark it like that. I don't want anything spoiled for me. Thanks.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by BobZ » Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:09 pm

One simple enough reason: because it is beautiful. Akira Toryiama's world is something amazing, out of the ordinary. There's no way you can't fall in love with it, its characters, innocence and ideas. The philosophy he uses throughout the series, the development and unfolding of the overall plot... it just never gets old for me. I've rewatched DBZ more than 10 times maybe and I'm rewatching it now via the Dragon Box and Kai and I am having a thrill like watching it for the first time.
And each time I find something to surprise me and just remind why I love it so much.
The impact this anime and manga have on my life is just too great to simply forget and I've promised myself that I'll always cherish it and keep it dear. Keep it close to my heart.
Last edited by BobZ on Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Kiyza » Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:34 pm

I'd say this site is probably a major cause. Other than that, there's the DVD releases. Dragon Boxes on top of the "blue bricks" and soon to be followed by Kai? Sheesh, it's getting hard to keep up with it all. And a few of my friends are actually just starting to get in to the series, so it's nice to be able to talk about it with them when it's more fresh in my memory.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by theoriginalbilis » Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:35 pm

The art style, the likable characters, the story as it grows in scope, the new merchandise (like games, music, and DVD releases) also helps keep it in my memory. The fan community here at Daizex keeps me coming back too, since it's one of the few places fans can discuss the franchise in a respectable & intelligent light.
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Travis Touchdown » Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:11 pm

BobZ wrote:One simple enough reason: because it is beautiful. Akira Toryiama's world is something amazing, out of the ordinary. There's no way you can't fall in love with it, its characters, innocence and ideas. The philosophy he uses throughout the series, the development and unfolding of the overall plot... it just never gets old for me. I've rewatched DBZ more than 10 times maybe and I'm rewatching it now via the Dragon Box and Kai and I am having a thrill like watching it for the first time.
And each time I find something to surprise me and just remind why I love it so much.
The impact this anime and manga have on my life is just to big to simply forget and I've promised myself that I'll always cherish it and keep it dear. Keep it close to my heart.
That about wraps it up. I love the characters. When one of them dies, I get sad, even though I know they're going to be back in a while. I honestly care about them and what all happens to them. Seeing Goku turn into a Super Saiyan for the first time never gets old.

I love the evolution from super strong martial artist to all-around super hero. Goku didn't start off able to do everything, like Superman. Goku worked from the ground up to be where he is at the end of DBZ/GT (whichever you consider the end). Despite being the most powerful fighter in the universe, Goku remains his good-hearted fun loving self without being overly cocky. I mean, he knows nobody outside of their group stands a chance against them, but he acts like his friends all have the ability to beat him even when they clearly don't.
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Kid Buu » Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:28 pm

The first time I watched Dragon Ball Z was a rerun of Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo fighting Nappa. However I didn't really start watching the show until the fake Namek reruns. The show seem interesting enough so I kept on watching. Having starting from Namek, I never actually viewed Goku as the main character. Some will disagree, but DBZ has always been more about Gohan/Vegeta to me. The show always kept in suspense and has always been my #1. After DBZ/original DB/GT my interest did admittedly die down a bit. However with the 2008 TV Special, Kai and other things my interested has been returned.

My all time best Dragon Ball Z moment was when I was at my friends birthday party and a brand new episode came on and I kept on asking if I could watch it so his parents put it on. By the end of the day I actually managed to get all my friends into the show as well. :lol:
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by DBZ_1997 » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:30 am

Simply because its my childhood.... :)

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Kendamu » Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:07 am

I've answered this question in long and wordy ways before that get into more detail, so this time I'll try and keep it short and sweet:

1) It's a fun story.
2) It's a long story that's very diverse and fits many different moods... meaning it's hard to get tired of the whole thing because at least one part of it will always be something I'm in the mood to watch.
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Tue Mar 16, 2010 5:01 am

I haven't seen the Dragon Ball anime in a while because I'm waiting for Kai. But what kept me watching the whole series through to the end of GT was the characters, story and most of all, the action.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Captain-Sora » Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:28 am

A lot of things make me come back this series, mainly the community. Regarding Dragon Ball's attraction itself though is because Akira Toriyama actually knew that he was making a shonen comic book series and how he didn't try to go beyond that, his whole story ended up being well done because of its simplicity and straight forward plot that didn't derail into total trash most of the time.

A lot of other shonen manga series today are ridiculous, they start out well written and interesting then everything just falls apart from there as they go along, their authors always try to make their series something "more" than just an action series for kids which funny enough, is very stupid to do(unless you can manage to pull it off nicely like Oda does half of the time in One Piece). They always try to pull out of their asses these really horrible sub-plots to help develop their characters but they always end up being just awful, obnoxious, pretentious melodrama clustered all over their series and ruining the pacing of the main story(sometimes I even wonder if a few of today's shonen manga authors actually forget what their characters' original goals are when they're busy writing those terrible sidetracked sub-plots).

In Dragon Ball, there isn't much of that. Akira Toriyama KNOWS he isn't an amazing writer and he doesn't pretend be one. The series is full of mistakes(mostly art inconsistencies), simple cardboard cut-out characters and underwhelming stories that don't have nearly the best of writing they could have. Despite all its flaws, ironically in the end it's more entertaining than a lot of other series because it had a straight forward story and what makes the characters interesting are the unique and different things they do as well as their fun personalities, not because they had some angsty backstory or have some cheesy motive. Sure its fights may drag on a lot but at least the story doesn't spend like ten chapters of a character cutting himself over something.

Also, as an aspiring comic book artist, I really liked how Dragon Ball also didn't have assloads of redundant, stupid panels clashing with the story in each chapter(such as a character simply grinning and not doing or saying anything else), sure there were a handful but not an amount that wasn't manageable, it really reminds me of how western comics are handled and written which is a good thing. A lot of action manga series today have that problem and it's intolerable, you have to wait like five chapters till the story actually progresses because every week when a new part is out, the majority of what you end up reading is just characters making an expression or saying unnecessary dialogue that contributes to almost nothing. I GUESS these stupid corny panels are meant to "emphasis" what a character's GOING to do/say but to me, I think those really only work during special, pivotal situations, not every damn moment.

One more thing that brings me back to Dragon Ball is of course, the art. The proportions of the characters may look off at times and sometimes it looks rushed(mostly during the parts prior to Kid Buu's introduction) but overall, it's pretty nice to look at. When it comes to designing characters, imaginary machines,transportations, and places the characters visit, that's where AT's skills really shine.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by ShonenKnife » Tue Mar 16, 2010 8:53 am

For the most part, it's more or less nostalgia. But the series itself maintains a certain charm that seems to keep the story so endearing to the entire fanbase. I mean, how many times have most of us watched the show and read the manga, and never get tired of it? As soon as my first Dragon Box arrives, I'll be on my fourth or fifth full viewing of the Saiyan arc, and I haven't even been watching as long as a handful of folk on here.

I find early Dragon Ball cute, and generally as a fan of cartoon I hold it in high esteem. The artistic style Toriyama employs is pleasing to the eye of the typical 10 year old child, without even having to get into the whole potty-humour conversation, even adults find that stuff funny (unless they're just stiff, no offense).

Even later when the series becomes more action-orientated, I'm watching the part that my martial arts-fanboy youth spirit found so attractive way back when. Fun characters with amazing powers, beating up bad guys and being badasses. God, even the villains are likeable bad asses. It's the same reason I have the Green Ranger story in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at home, stashed away to view when my mind is chemically altered. :mrgreen:

I'm still a kid at heart. Maybe the same goes for the rest of us?

(Not comparing DB to story or *snicker* "acting" in MMPR by the way. And haven't watched DB under the influence... yet.)
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by caejones » Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:31 pm

Thinking about it, I've noticed a few things...
Of all the series I've extended fandom in, DB has really remained the most active, probably with Power Rangers behind it.
For starters, the characters probably sell DB (I tend to think of that as the reason I prefer Southpark to Family Guy... I just like the SP kids more than the Griffens.). <Spoiler> I think that's why, even knowing how death works in DB, I'm bothered by Gohan, Goten Trunks and Piccolo getting left on the Earth when Buu destroys it... :cry: </spoiler>

Second... the story is both very straightforward and very open to speculation. I kinda want to compare it to X-men, in which it's a little difficult to isolate an overarching storyline, and pretty much everything that can be elaborated on is (Ur... well... more so than in DB, anyway. XD). I fin X-Men to be awesome, but somehow it doesn't keep pulling me back the way DB does. (I think that's partly due to the characters as well, though, hee...).

DB's world and how everything works touches the imagination, then gives it such an incredible amount of room to play that shunkan'iido couldn't get halfway across it.
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Scarz » Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:40 pm

To be honest if it wasn't for my DBZbeauties club, Dragonball doujinshi and hentai I probably wouldn't be interested in the DB anymore. Or maybe it's the simple fact that I really love the series.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by mystic trunks » Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:04 pm

Because it is(And I realize this word is very overused these days) epic. I have been a fan of the show since I was about 10 and have always loved it. It actually has some great life lessons in it as well.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by LilKokuLink » Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:13 pm

Scarz wrote:To be honest if it wasn't for my DBZbeauties club, Dragonball doujinshi and hentai I probably wouldn't be interested in the DB anymore. Or maybe it's the simple fact that I really love the series.
Maybe. :wink:

Long story short and I've said this time and time again: nostalgia! It's a fucking amazing experience!
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by ShiningMoon » Tue Mar 16, 2010 7:12 pm

I started watching DBZ (I think around the Cell arc) when I was about 10 years old. Somehow it managed to suck me in, even though I don't think it would have been my "typical" taste at the time. I became sort of emotionally connected to it, reading all these fanfics, then doing art and writing my own fanfics.

I left for a while, partly because I was busy and partly because I decided I was going to be "better" and do original work instead of fanart and fanfics. Well, then my work all sort of stagnated; I did hardly any art all once I stopped doing Dragon Ball.

Then this January, I decided I'd had enough of such deprivation. I realized that I was always happiest and most productive when I did Dragon Ball fan work. So I went back and read the manga again and wondered how I ever managed to go so long without my dear old DBZ. I got the first Dragon Box so I'm watching through everything again, and am happy to finally have a pretty and convenient way to watch each episode in Japanese (since I've only seen a handful of episodes -- maybe 15 or 20 -- in this way before).

It's really the characters for me...all the way. I love looking into each situation from the different characters' perspectives. That aside, another reason I came back to do art was the people. I remembered having the support of fellow fans...the discussions and thought exchange. Makes me really glad to have joined this forum now; the "first time around" (the first 6 years I was super into the series, before my "break"), I had no idea it existed, somehow.

And yeah, of course, one can never discount the power of nostalgia. Probably the best thing that break did for me: turned Dragon Ball into a nostalgic experience as well as an emotional one.

That being said, I can't believe how much my ability to write battle scenes has deteriorated. :oops:

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Corporate_Nothing » Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:25 pm

Kiyza wrote:I'd say this site is probably a major cause. Other than that, there's the DVD releases. Dragon Boxes on top of the "blue bricks" and soon to be followed by Kai? Sheesh, it's getting hard to keep up with it all. And a few of my friends are actually just starting to get in to the series, so it's nice to be able to talk about it with them when it's more fresh in my memory.
Basically this, plus the nostalgia factor. Dragon Ball Z literally consumed my childhood, but I only had access to the edited dub on Cartoon Network and part of the uncut dub on VHS (Great Saiyaman-Kid Buu Sagas, a few volumes of GT, and some movies). Oh yeah, I read the first seven volumes of Dragon Ball, as well. My friend recently started watching DBZ through the season sets, which inspired me to do the same. Except I decided to start from Dragon Ball instead, and I'm going to keep up with the Dragon Box releases rather than watch a butchered experience with the Orange Bricks.
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Amigo Ten » Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:20 am

I really don't know. Probably because it's such a simple story, which means there's always something to invent or over analyze about it.

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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Bardock the Mexican » Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:47 am

BlazeGogeta wrote:Why do you not stop watching/reading DragonBall?

I don't have one, because I'm a brand new fan. I'm just trying to see everyones reasons. Hope I can get a good read from this.

Also, if something contains spoilers, please mark it like that. I don't want anything spoiled for me. Thanks.
Dragonball means nostalgia to a lot of people, who would probably consider it to be akin to a gateway drug into the anime world and fandom. Same goes for manga fans and others who found manga that way, without previous exposure. For me Dragonball reminds me of growing up and being a kid again, good feelings that nothing else really can bring. I think that's what keeps me coming back to this site and also the community or sense of one also helps. We have a community of sub version fans, varying dub version fans, and fans of the manga which all create a unique picture of what the Dragonball fandom is. Over the years more and more people have been exposed to the original Japanese version and seen how great it is, which has lessened dub love and fanaticism.

Do I want to see the anti-dub hate of say ten or so years ago? No, of course not and I'm sure nobody at this point is going to want that. It's just odd that someone would defend the dub, which is the opposite of the original's quality and the quality of other dubs. Funimation hate is another thing that is odd in a world where one can torrent anime and download episodes. It's more along the lines that people have a choice in what they want to watch, but we would chose quality hypothetically. I'd like to hear one good argument in favor of the original funimation dub and have no nostalgia goggles engaged. That would be the weeping icon of the pro dub fan community. Until that happens the superior dub will be the Mexican Spanish one and the Japanese original.
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Re: What keeps you coming back to DragonBall?

Post by Dr. Casey » Wed Mar 17, 2010 2:04 am

There's nothing in particular that makes me watch Dragon Ball again every once in a while, it's just that any good story is worth coming back to. I watched some Urusei Yatsura the other day, and I haven't done anything with that series since early 2007.

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