Nostalgia - A powerful force

[ABED]

Thoughts on nostalgia, anyone? Is it a force for good, bad for you? How has it affected you when you watch or read Dragon Ball?

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

its good when something brings back fond memories. Its bad when it makes you think a negative opinion about a thing you like is an attack on your state of being

[Doctor.]

It doesn't affect me.

I grew up with Pokémon. Everyone at my school(s) were crazy over Dragon Ball, but I was always the kid who never knew what the hell they were talking about. I had a video-game I played somewhat (Shin Budokai, I believe), but I hardly touched the anime. I watched a few episodes of the Boo arc on TV and caught the first episodes of GT, but that's as farthest as my interaction with the franchise went.

It was only through a friend that I started watching it 5 years ago, and I was introduced to the Funimation dub unfortunately. I believe I hold little nostalgia towards the series and this has allowed me to (hopefully) judge every product the series puts out, and the various dubs, without any bias getting in the way.

[voltlunok]

By it's defination nostalgia is a good thing. It's thinking back on something fondly and being filled with a sense of joy, how is joy a bad thing? Now like all good things it's best in moderation and doses, too little can make ya jaded and too much can make you misremember or outright be unable to see things as they are (Hence the term nostalgia goggles. Which I hate by the way.) Nostalgia all and all is a force for good but in all honesty has been taken to the dark side a bit. An example, we're currently in an age where the majority of films, tv shows and all that are reboots of things from the 80s and 90s and while some if not most of these reboots are meh...there are some that are great but are considered awful due in most part to nostalgia for the original. Not only that companies and developers for video games are capitalizing on our nostalgia by reviving franchises or rebooting them into the 21st century! Or you have the original creators calling on fan's nostalgia for help to revive their old projects (Example being Swat Kats Revolution! Which I am stoked for but I'm gonna be cautiously optimistic.)

Now in terms of DBZ or most of the anime boom from the 90s, nostalgia is still mostly a good thing but it does cloud judgement at times. Example, Gundam Wing, yes it's kinda meh (Least...the dub is. Japanese version is so bloody popular it's story is still going to this day!) but I still love it since it holds such a special place in my heart, it was my very first anime, the first series I'd watched start to finish. It's why I'm such a gundam freak, it started everything for me and yeah I'm gonna remember it very fondly. Am I gonna defend it blindly? A little but I do see and recognize it's flaws but it still has things great to it. The same could be said for the Z dub, yes it's flawed, yes it's not 100% accurate to the original, it still has some good stuff to it though.

All and all nostalgia is a powerful force indeed, but it's a good force that when taken in high doses can lead to some bad results.

[KameRule]

Pretty much the same case as Doctor.; I only got into the series a few years ago, so I don't think I hold too much bias towards it. I can also look at stuff I liked when I was younger and confidently say "this is shit".

I don't have a problem with people having nostalgia as long as they enjoy it in their own company, but if you know that it's going to get in the way of your objective judgement, then don't make declarations of objective judgement.

[Lord Beerus]

Nostalgia has never really affected me. I mean, DBZ was the first anime I watched and I certainly look back and have many fond memories of the show but it won't cloud my judgement of the show, and if I ever saw bullshit in the show, I would call it out immediately. It's the same deal with the manga.

[Kamiccolo9]

Nostalgia is death to unbiased discussion, therefore it is my sworn enemy, and I must strive to drive it out.

[dougo13]

What about how nostalgia drives some manga artists and writers. Ever get the feel for what Miyazaki is saying in many of his works? Going back to a kinder, gentler (to him) world seems to be a common thread. Watch a movie like "Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko" and you definitely get that feel...

[Codarik]

Never affects me in a negative way, meaning I don't judge other dubs cause I have fond memories of watching FUNi's dub, though I do like it when I go rewatch some episodes and say to myself "Hey I remember watching this episode back in the day!". Nostalgia affects me negatively to some other series but for DB, no.

[Zanza]

I feel that, whether people realize it or not, nostalgia is pretty much the driving force of an adult fan's appreciation for DBZ.

Dragon Ball Z isn't exactly a literary masterpiece. Its writing is subpar at best, even when you compare it to other series of its kind. As kids, we didn't care about that. We just wanted to see aliens shoot lasers from their hands. As you grow older, you start to notice the many problems with DBZ, and for some, that steers them away from the series entirely. For others, they hold their memories of watching/reading DBZ too close for them to abandon the series in spite of its questionable quality.

I have a feeling that most of the fans who grew up with DBZ wouldn't like it if they were to experience it for the first time as adults. It just wasn't written with the adult audience in mind.

[NitroEX]

I think it's left some people confused as to what "good acting" is. When I'm shown a "good dub" that's littered with monotone delivery it just leaves me scratching my head in confusion.

Also the fanbase for Bruce Faulconer music is driven mostly by nostalgia. The majority of people who listen to that stuff with fresh ears understand that it's cheap sounding but the DB fanbase equate it to Mozart.

As for me, when I watch Dragonball I understand that it's far from great (and I wouldn't be in a hurry to show it to others) but I'm still able to love it for it's flaws. I think that's partly my own nostalgia as well as just having watched something so many times that I can normalise the bad aspects of it. I do think there are great qualities to be appreciated within the shows but without the nostalgia these would quickly be overlooked so it has it's benefits.

[SaintEvolution]

Well, everyone who has nostalgia is affected by it. Me too, but not so in some points like plots, pacings and etc.

[Kakacarrottop]

I'll just say this. As a child (circa early 2000s) i grew up watching the FUNimation in-house dub, and only saw one or two episodes of the "Ocean dub". Now years later i think the "Ocean dub" is a genuinely good dub and i still regularly watch it, despite the fact it's a flawed product which i have no nostalgia for.

Not everyone who likes the original FUNi/Ocean dubs does so because of nostalgia. Someone might just genuinely prefer synthesized rock music & corny pop culture references over the stuff in Kai or the Japanese version.

[ABED]

I'll just say this. As a child (circa early 2000s) i grew up watching the FUNimation in-house dub, and only saw one or two episodes of the "Ocean dub". Now years later i think the "Ocean dub" is a genuinely good dub and i still regularly watch it, despite the fact it's a flawed product which i have no nostalgia for.

Not everyone who likes the original FUNi/Ocean dubs does so because of nostalgia. Someone might just genuinely prefer synthesized rock music & corny pop culture references over the stuff in Kai or the Japanese version.

Really? You prefer "You dirty crook, you stole your mother's pocket book" over "You will experience a terror greater than that of Hell"? What about the former is preferable to the latter?

[90sDBZ]

Someone might just genuinely prefer synthesized rock music & corny pop culture references over the stuff in Kai or the Japanese version.

This is pretty much me.

As far as nostalgia is concerned, I only feel it for stuff I still genuinely like to this day. For example, the DBZ I watched on Cartoon Network UK as a kid transitioned through 3 dubs; the Saban Ocean dub, the Funi inhouse dub, and the Westwood Ocean dub. To this day, I can still watch and thoroughly enjoy those first 2 dubs, and can feel nostalgia for them because I still like them, not the other way around. The Westwood dub on the other hand is something that I can't really sit through anymore, and as a result I don't really get much nostalgia for it despite the fact I grew up with it.

It's the same with the videogames. The one I feel the most nostalgic for is the one that still stands above the rest today, Budokai 3. BT1 came out the following year, and while it was okay, it didn't come close to Budokai 3 and its 2 predecessors, so I don't get much nostalgia for it. The year after that BT2 came out and it was so awesome at the time and remains so awesome that I still get nostalgic when I play it.

[Kamiccolo9]

Anyone who is saying that "yeah, I get nostalgic over it, but I don't let it affect me in any way," is lying. You cannot completely eliminate subliminal bias like that. It doesn't work.

[voltlunok]

I'll just say this. As a child (circa early 2000s) i grew up watching the FUNimation in-house dub, and only saw one or two episodes of the "Ocean dub". Now years later i think the "Ocean dub" is a genuinely good dub and i still regularly watch it, despite the fact it's a flawed product which i have no nostalgia for.

Not everyone who likes the original FUNi/Ocean dubs does so because of nostalgia. Someone might just genuinely prefer synthesized rock music & corny pop culture references over the stuff in Kai or the Japanese version.

Really? You prefer "You dirty crook, you stole your mother's pocket book" over "You will experience a terror greater than that of Hell"? What about the former is preferable to the latter?

It's called personal taste. Each person has it and overall it's different from person to person, sure some people match up but expecting everyone to be on the same exact page like some sort of hive mind that all understand they need to like all of column A but hate all of column B is kinda silly.

[DBZMerciter2005]

I feel that, whether people realize it or not, nostalgia is pretty much the driving force of an adult fan's appreciation for DBZ.

Dragon Ball Z isn't exactly a literary masterpiece. Its writing is subpar at best, even when you compare it to other series of its kind. As kids, we didn't care about that. We just wanted to see aliens shoot lasers from their hands. As you grow older, you start to notice the many problems with DBZ, and for some, that steers them away from the series entirely. For others, they hold their memories of watching/reading DBZ too close for them to abandon the series in spite of its questionable quality.

I have a feeling that most of the fans who grew up with DBZ wouldn't like it if they were to experience it for the first time as adults. It just wasn't written with the adult audience in mind.

Anyone who is saying that "yeah, I get nostalgic over it, but I don't let it affect me in any way," is lying. You cannot completely eliminate subliminal bias like that. It doesn't work.

I agree with both of these posts. As someone that watched DBZ in middle school all I wanted was transformations, big fights, and adrenaline inducing fun. I'm nostalgic about the series because it inspired me to draw and write a story of my own. Even though those things never came to be it was DBZ that made me want to try.

On the other hand you have my husband. He had seen all of Dragon Ball and bits of Z before he met me. When we watched the latter half of Z together he hated it: the plot is inconsistent, things that were important in one arc were either ignored or irrelevant in another (e.g. zenkai boosts), the villains are evil purely for the sake of being evil, non-Saiyans became worthless, etc. He doesn't understand why I'm even bothering to watch Super because, in his opinion, there's no redeeming factor to the series at all other than giving TFS more DBZ:A material (note: we love DBZ:A). That said, I admit I'm watching the series purely for nostalgia. I'm more than happy to overlook mistakes because I'm just happy we're getting new stuff. My husband saw Z as an adult; I saw it as a child. I'm sure that's why I still like DB despite how awful it can be and he doesn't like it at all.

In regards to Kamiccolo9's line he is technically correct. No matter how you put it you cannot completely remove a cognitive bias - in this case nostalgia - from your opinions. The best you can do is admit to your biases ahead of time and then create an "unbiased" opinion.

[Avery]

I started watching the series properly last year. I don't have this thing for DB, but it would definitely affect me if i watched it a few years earlier. That's why I had a really hard time with HxH's remake despite being more faithful to the manga and having awesome animation and soundtrack.

[ABED]

It's called personal taste. Each person has it and overall it's different from person to person, sure some people match up but expecting everyone to be on the same exact page like some sort of hive mind that all understand they need to like all of column A but hate all of column B is kinda silly.

I never remotely claimed everyone should like everything I like. That wasn't the point at all.

What value does that person get from something so goofy that they think it's better than the original line? I'm not even talking about the music, just the dialog. I get nostalgia, and there are things that I would quantify as objectively awful TV shows, movies, etc. that I still enjoy in spite of flaws, but I have my reasons, and I can call a spade a spade.