Dragon Ball in a casual aspect?

[xzero]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

Back in college, I was buying quite a bit of anime and really enjoyed it. The first non-DBZ series I started buying was Yu Yu Hakusho, which actually was due to a combination of a promo for one of the later DVDs in the series appearing on a DBZ DVD and a sale at Suncoast Video the day after I watched the promo. From there, I ended up buying and sampling various other series. Most of them are more "mainstream," like Fullmetal Alchemist, Evangelion, Rurouni Kenshin, and Death Note. I also have some less popular or lesser known series like Black Cat, Basilisk, Gankutsuou, Trinity Blood, Samurai 7, etc. However, after college, I really slowed down on the anime buying/watching. In fact, the only two series that debuted post-college that I got were DB Kai and FMA Brotherhood. And now that they're largely over (FMA Brotherhood still has the dub of its movie coming out soon), I'm pretty much done with most anime.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Yes. The above paragraph describes my basic anime experience, but it's a sure thing that but for DBZ, I probably never would have discovered any of those. I'm not sure if it's for the sake of knowing the genre as much as it just is because I finally found a genre that I enjoy, a direct result of my video game love.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Maybe? I really don't hang out with anime fans, so I wouldn't know. Best guess is yes.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own?

For me, yes. It's like, there's anime and then there's Dragon Ball/Z/GT. I'm not sure how else I could explain that, but DBZ doesn't feel like anime. It also doesn't feel like an American cartoon. For instance, you have your American anime like Batman Beyond, your American cartoons like Spongebob, your American "animation" like Simpsons and Family Guy, and anime as a separate, more encompassing category. Then somewhere in there is DBZ. It feels like a beast unto its own.

[Son Satan]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

In the same capacity? No, not at all. I do enjoy One Piece, and a few others, but nothing like with Dragon Ball. When I'm into something, I'll be in-depth with it, sure, but never as in-depth as the discussions on Daizex get.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

I guess in a way it did. It was the first anime that I saw where I was made aware that it was both Japanese and had a genre to it. For instance, Pokémon was the first anime I'd seen, but at the time I just knew it was a cool show based on a cooler video game. For DB, I saw it as an exciting action cartoon like, say, Batman: The Animated Series, until I saw a Gundam ad on Toonami and my dad made a passing comment about it being "a pretty cool Japanese cartoon" and I realized that all of Toonami was Japanese shows.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

In a way. Most people just have passing memories of their favorite show from childhood, but a few know more about it, and are big dubbies, though no one really watches much. A few examples I can think of are:
-In a brainstorming session where we needed to write a skit, I jokingly tossed out the premise of GT, and one guy asked "Wait, are you really doing DBGT right now?"
-At a band concert on Friday, my friends and I were playing our DS' while waiting to go on, and I was playing Supersonic Warriors 2, which made my friend take out his copy of Supersonic Warriors, and another got out his copy of (god help him) Taiketsu, and I complained about the music of that game, which sparked a discussion of which was better, Budokai 3 or Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
-People make jokes involving the Kamehame-ha and Kaio-ken once in a while.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I guess so, if I think about it. I see a few folks around school wearing extremely Japanese bootleg T-shirts (by which I mean all of the writing is katakana, the wrong characters too), and I saw a little boy in GameStop the other day asking the clerk if they had any DBZ games, which led him to begging his mom for all of them. It's definitely there, and maybe only to kids of a certain age, but it's there. Not as loudly as people remember Pokémon, and it's definitely a quite presence, but people will always know some of what I mean if it happens in passing reference.

[TripleRach]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I want to say yes, because I really don't care about "anime" as a whole, or the "anime fan" mentality of seeking out all of it. But after Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon is a close second to me, and then there are a handful of other series I enjoy but don't put nearly as much effort into collecting them or rewatching them.

As far as media from Japan goes, I care about tokusatsu (closer to an actual genre) far more than anime and manga.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

No. I've been familiar with Japanese animation my entire life, thanks to watching Robotech and Voltron as a toddler. I also watched the Pokemon anime for nearly two years before I got into Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball coincided with a few other Toonami shows from 2000.

EDIT: But for manga specifically, it was definitely my first, and inspired me to seek out the original manga for more series. Though I haven't actually bought much other manga yet, because importing books is expensive, and I don't want to buy American versions.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

I don't know. I don't exactly go out in public and mingle with random people. But I never overhear people talking about it when I'm out. My friends do casually joke about it sometimes, but they're mostly former fans anyway.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I might be too old and antisocial to really judge it properly. But a couple weeks ago I found out Pokemon is still a lot more popular here than I realized. I went to see the newest movie in theaters (a limited release), and it was packed with kids and their parents! Meanwhile, when I went to see Evolution (a national wide release) on opening weekend, there were maybe 7 people total in the theater room.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

To be honest, no. I feel like I should do, for some reason, but I've never been that particularly interested in any manga/anime series other than Dragon Ball. I borrowed a couple of early manga volumes of Naruto from my friend, but I never got into that because the story and the characters didn't really grab me. I bought the first manga volume of Death Note, read it, thought it was alright, but didn't really pursue any further interest in it. I guess one of the reasons for this is that the artistic style can often put me off. A lot of it, to me, just doesn't appeal to me and tends to look the same as other manga/anime's artistic styles.

Plus, money. I have more important priorities to be spending my cash on.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

My first experience of anime was Pokemon, but I didn't know that it was an anime; I thought it was just a regular cartoon. Not that animes aren't "regular cartoons"; I mean, in the way that people, perhaps incorrectly, tend to seperate Western cartoons from Japanese cartoons. But my interest in Pokemon, both in the video games and anime, dropped out as time went on. DB didn't expand my horizon to other anime/manga series, because, as I aforementioned, I haven't really got into any anime other than DB.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

It's seldom mentioned at my school, and when it is, it's generally described as "that cartoon I used to watch when I was younger". And the rare times I ever mention it outside of the internet is mostly to one of my friends, who is a fellow fan.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I live in Plymouth, UK, and I have never once seen a DVD of the Dragon Ball anime in any of the shops I've been to. The manga volumes, yes. But the anime DVDs, no.

[Adamant]

I do like a good number of Japanese series, but it's typically not the stuff the people calling themselves "anime fans" tend to be into. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, One Piece, Time Bokan, Detective Conan, Cutey Honey, Fist of the North Star, Casshern, Gatchaman, Devilman, Getter Robo... it kinda steers in the direction of "comedy/action that doesn't take itself all that seriously"...and there's a lot of older stuff there because, well, focus isn't really on this sort of stuff all that much anymore.

Ah sorry, misread the question and took it as "what other series do you actively like". As for series I'm actually "into", that'd just be Pokemon, which I follow, discuss and run a reasonably large website on. The general "fandom" of the anime series is pretty terrible (can you still call it a "fandom" when it mostly seems interested in complaining about absolutely everything?), but we got ourselves our own little community free of the extremeties you see elsewhere.

[Hellspawn28]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

No, I'm not a Otaku or anything like that but I do enjoy anime/manga besides Dragon Ball. I enjoy Devilman, Bastard!!, Wicked City, Gunbuster, FLCL, Ninja Scroll, Gundam Wing, Birdy the Mighty, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Bubblegum Crisis, Tenchi Muyo!, Guyver - Bio-Booster Armor, Genocyber, Fullmetal Alchemist, Demon City Shinjuju, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, TTGL and other older anime. I enjoy comics more then manga but I like them both equally.

Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Yes! I was a huge Godzilla, Pokemon and Digimon fan before Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball made want to check out other series and made me want to draw my own action scenes. Dragon Ball also help made became artist and I don't know where I will be out the series. God to thank my best friend Ryan that used to live next to me from 2000-2002.

Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Not really. I hardly see people talk about Dragon Ball or see any toys at the toy stores after GT ended in 2005. Most people I talk to will say "Lol you still like DBZ" or Don't know what the hell Dragon Ball is?

Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I don't how to answer this question but my local book store still has the whole manga and I see DBZ dvd's at Best Buy but I haven't seen much Dragon Ball merchandise at stores in years? I did see two people buy Ultimate Tenkachi back in November which I thought was pretty cool.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Going into this blind, will read other responses later. Certainly a very good thing to ask.

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I still keep track of the Pokemon Movies (11 and 12 were a huge step in the right direction- a similar Renaissance to what I think happened for DBZ's last couple movies), did follow the Yu-gi-oh! spin-off animes until Zexal happened (Silly concept written primarily by the worst writer at NAS), and loved Yu Yu, Digimon, and G Gundam back in the day, but then one is over, one's declined (Never thought "Digimon ended at Tamers" would be a popular sentiment, apparently it is), and I never really took to the other Gundams.

Of course, those were all non-Adult Swim broadcast properties; only other animes I would really say I liked would be Full Metal Alchemist and Bubblegum Crisis. (EDIT: And then I read Eire's post and forgot that I wanted to look into Slayers. Funny stuff there.) Look, only a single anime I listed wasn't Shonen.

Although I will give virtually anything a chance because I'm not a hard critic, anime collective seems pretty much all trash, uninteresting, or really not meant for non-Japanese. I hear harder core fans are having the same reaction; the quality has declined, and the West has no problem localizing crap because of how niche the industry is.

So for a survey's sake, I'd say "closer to yes".

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

It was not the only thing that did it. What I notice is that there was rarely a time where I'd call myself an "anime fan" as if everything that came out of Japan was amazing by virtue of being drawn or animated by Japanese. There was a time where it was all mysterious and new, but that honestly repelled me more than it excited me, and now that I'm older I've seen that that was the proper reaction. Pokemon and Dragon Ball are the only animes I actually own home releases of.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

In that whenever Dragon Ball (Namely Z) comes up in males of my age group everyone will have a response akin to either "DBZ was the best" or "DBZ was five episodes to get one episode of plot"? Probably.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own?

In that it's one of the few animes that transcends anime fandom? Of course, no question. The problems being that Dragon Ball is long over, and the "second wave" as Mr. EX puts it is definitely over. It made its own "institution" of fans and a large number of sub-groups of fans, but most of that fandom is nothing I would call "active", whatever that means.

[Shiyonasan]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

For the most part. Dragon Ball is certainly my favorite manga/anime out there, but I also like Astro Boy, Fullmetal Alchemist, Monster, Ghibli films, and a few obscure anime. I've also been getting into Hunter X Hunter lately through the original anime.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Definitely. Although I did watch Pokemon, Gundam, Tenchi Muyo, and Sailor Moon back in the day, Dragon Ball was definitely was my gateway. I still remember getting on the internet and finding out the show was actually from Japan.

However, I wouldn't call myself an "anime fan" because I don't really care for a lot of anime in general.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Hardly. The only people that really mention Dragon Ball around these parts anymore are the ones that still like to watch anime, which are few and far between here.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own?

In a way it has, but I wouldn't say it has completely. Usually, when you talk to people about Dragon Ball that remember watching it in their youth, they either don't know that the show is from Japan, or are aware of where it came from, but don't watch it anymore and generally think about it differently than other anime due to it being their gateway anime. Otherwise, it is just basically another shonen manga/anime series - one that managed to become popular because of its publicity and general liking among its fanbase at the time.

[Perfect]

Thus far these have been very fun to read, especially while playing the Indiana Jones theme in the background. I've read a lot of differing opinions and it's fun to contrast in my head to compare what people think. I've come to realize Dragon Ball is something special and not just another generic comic book or cartoon title. Sure it may be to some casual viewers, but I'm looking at things from a worldwide perspective. From what I've gathered here from users that I can't help but agree with is, Dragon Ball's the most recognizable anime that's been one of the lucky few to actually transcend being within just anime and manga fan-bases. It's become somewhat of a casual term in recent years, but back in its prime on Toonami, it was the cartoon to watch (Like Ninja Turtles or something was in the late 80s and 90s).

It's been 27 or so years since the series was first released and it's still been able to maintain a popular hold on the world, nothing as much as it used to be, probably why some people would call it dead, but it's stuck around as an ionic franchise that many people know about around the world. It's one of the most successful video game franchises date with over 15-20 something million units sold total (The last official sales figures I found were 15 or so million units from when Dimps took over till Burst Limit). Granted it doesn't compare to something like Zelda (I think out of every game franchise it's like #30-40 something; even with the trashy sales Spike's brought recently), but to be able to have a successful video game line, four popular cartoon branches, a comic book that sells well every year (By well I don't mean it's number one, but does better than a lot of things still) and ton of related merchandising, I think that in itself has earned the series, even if it dies out completely one day (I don't think it will, I think Toei's gonna milk it as much as they can for every generation), a spot in the hall of fame for entertainment franchises.


I've also recently looked at box office results for the Pokemon movies, I was genuinely surprised. The first movie brought in over 160,000,000 dollars, whereas the later movies for today are around 40-50 million (Which is right around "Dragonball" Evolution's gross). I hope for 2012 Nicktoons and FUNimation can market the series to the best of their ability and maybe even license it off to other networks on television, I'm sure it can be number one on other channels like it is on Nicktoons, or rake in the sales continually like the Orange Bricks did in the beginning. Continue to post your replies, I'm sure I'm not the only one that's enjoying them.

[DBZ Mick]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

No, I also quite enjoy Neon Genesis Evangelion, Azumanga Daioh, Studio Ghibli films. I've also enjoyed Pokemon, Digimon, Sailor Moon, Gurren Lagann, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni‎ and so on. But Dragonball has stuck with me with the years.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

No, I saw Pokemon, Digimon, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptors beforehand. I think it's given me a bigger appreciation of the culture and language though.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Maybe back until 2004, but maybe with anime communites around the place. I honestly don't know.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

Like I said above it was pretty popular until IMO it's peak in 2004.

[MCDaveG]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

Completely negative. I enjoy lot of anime series and mangas. Dragon Ball also isn't my only top favorite series, I have more of them. For example all U. C. Gundam series, Saint Seiya, One Piece, Slayers, Yu Yu Hakusho.
Besides anime, staying in Jap. territory, I'm a fan of Kamen Rider.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Nope, first series I saw were Slayers and Dr. Slump, that I liked, with Pokémon and Digimon airing around the same time.
And after that, I saw first series Dragon Ball, which didn't got much of my interest, only after I saw episodes from the Buu saga where Vegeta was fighting with Goku, the art totally got me and for a while, I didn't know that it is the same or continuation of the series until I saw opening with the logo Dragon Ball Z.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

No way. In this small country, the only anime series that went more into the commercial territory were show for pre-school and elementary school kids like Pokémon and Digimon, acompanied by lots of merchandise. Then with Jetix and now Disney Channel, there were Shaman King, Oban Star Racers and Naruto. Naruto is the most popular and only shonen anime here.
There is also Animax, which is cable channel airing after 20:00 am and they started to air Dragon Ball series for the first time in october this year and it is GT, without dub, only subtitles. Only few people here know that something like Dragon Ball exists.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

I think in USA, it became synonyme of anime, as there is lot of people liking only this series but disliking other anime for example. Making it something midway between American comic book heroes and anime as a cartoon distinguish genre.
Exposure in my area was simple. You had satelite or cable with worldwide channels and stumbled upon it by luck. Most people know it from RTL II. Or later you had internet, interest in anime and luck

[Wobbuffet]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I care. In fact, I was impressed when I first noticed I enjoyed some manga series more than I enjoy Dragon Ball. Sket Dance and Rurouni Kenshin are good examples of these series.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Maybe. While Pokémon and Dragon Ball were the first anime series that I really got addicted to, I didn't really care if most of the anime series that I watched right after them were japanese cartoons. But it's thanks to Dragon Ball that I read manga. As you can see on my MyAnimeList profile, I read more manga than I watch anime.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Yes. In Brazil, Dragon Ball is almost synonymous with anime. If you show an anime poster to a random person, they will probably say it's Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya or Pokémon.
A year ago, I was talking to my friends about a crazy dream I had involving Freeza. While everybody was laughing, one of them said "I don't get it. Who's Freeza?" Everybody looked at her like she was an alien or something, especially since she likes anime and manga (but mostly shoujo and yaoi). I can't look at her the same way since then.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

There's a lot of exposure. The anime was braodcasted lots of times, specially Buu saga. The manga was one of the first manga series published in Brazil. Since the manga market was still in development, the series was released at half a tankobon per month (other series like Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho and Love Hina were released this way as well). The manga will be re-re-released next year, but this time as normal tankobon.

[Ahiru77]

I. Do you not really care for any other anime/manga series besides Dragon Ball?

I enjoy a few shows every now and then. Though most of the shows nowadays are kind of wishy washy or perverted.......it's just sad really.

Sometimes I check on the Big 3 just to see if they have achieved the better-than-DBZ level yet. A definite NO here.

II. Do you feel it opened your horizon to other anime/manga series, just for the sake of knowing the genre?

Other shows didn't look like DBZ so I didn't know it was anime. Then I was looking up another anime I saw on TV and found more shows that way.

Of course I can't go find shows like Dragon Ball. The other shows aren't nearly as sharp or straightforward.

III. Do you think Dragon Ball's become a casual term where you live?

Most definitely. I met a person who asked me what I liked and I said japanese animation. Then she responded with "You mean like DBZ?"......then we talked about it a little and I drew a Vegeta head for her. That was just awesome.

IV. Dragon Ball's had massive exposure in North America, do you think that it's become something of its own? (If you live in a different place, how's the exposure been in your area?)

The exposure here (Holland) was incredible. Everyone and their grandmothers loved it. I'm just waiting for them to get Kai here and see them go coocoo all over again.

[theoriginalbilis]

...No, I'm not a Otaku or anything like that but I do enjoy anime/manga besides Dragon Ball. I enjoy Devilman, Bastard!!, Gunbuster, Guyver - Bio-Booster Armor, Genocyber...

You have excellent taste, sir.