Should I let my 9 year old watch DBZ?

[doomydoomydoom]

I'll tell you this, as a kid watching the Japanese variation of Dragon Ball Z, I was disturbed when Babidi had his head punched off by Majin Buu and all the blood game gushing out. I found that part very disgusting and it urked me a lot.

It's something to keep note of, perhaps watch a censored version to be safe on the violence part till they get older.

For what it's worth, in Kai it appeared to be white liquid stuff, which made sense to me because he was this bug alien thing.

Just watched that part and yeah, it's much improved. Not only is it just that but they removed the part where Buu is holding his severed head, and they removed the really drawn out ocean of blood flowing out of Babidi.

I just looked up that scene to refresh myself and it's not that bad, it looks like a red light flowing out of his neck that turns into a pink cloud then purple goop drops. All in the name of censorship-with-style of course.

But I certainly concede that the violence in DBZ could be a bit much for a 9 year old, even though it's not gory like a horror movie it is very bloody and does feature characters getting limbs, heads, etc. chopped off, lots of merciless fighting, etc. It all depends on what you think your kid can handle. DB has some of that but is much heavier on the sex jokes, there is also explicit nudity (Bulma pulling up her dress anybody?).

I remember when I lived in a youth residential treatment center as a teenager I brought in my DB DVDs and watched with two other kids who were DBZ fans, they of course had never seen DB before and I wanted to spread the knowledge. One of the ladies who worked for the center was sitting with us watching it and when we got to the parts with Oolong and Bulma's panties there was some brow-furrowing. I explained that panty jokes are considered OK for kids in Japan. She was all like "Oh...I was wondering what was going on there." LOL. She didn't berate me and rip out the DVD or anything. I think I stopped letting the other kids watch it due to content concerns. Can't remember if anybody explicitly told me I wasn't allowed to show them anymore or not.

[Robo4900]

there is also explicit nudity (Bulma pulling up her dress anybody?).

Unless you're reading the manga, you don't see anything. (Even the manga, the worst it gets is one or two panels of her boobs)

I remember when I lived in a youth residential treatment center as a teenager I brought in my DB DVDs and watched with two other kids who were DBZ fans, they of course had never seen DB before and I wanted to spread the knowledge. One of the ladies who worked for the center was sitting with us watching it and when we got to the parts with Oolong and Bulma's panties there was some brow-furrowing. I explained that panty jokes are considered OK for kids in Japan. She was all like "Oh...I was wondering what was going on there." LOL. She didn't berate me and rip out the DVD or anything. I think I stopped letting the other kids watch it due to content concerns. Can't remember if anybody explicitly told me I wasn't allowed to show them anymore or not.

Hm, yes... Oolong is somewhat troublesome in those first 13 episodes...

Perhaps a compromise would be best; watch the first 13 episodes from the original BLT dub. Basically all the Funi cast were just doing impressions of the Ocean cast anyway, and that's how a lot of people -- myself included -- had to watch it because of the way the DVDs and most online torrents and such had the show.
Because of its fairly niche nature, the BLT DVDs go pretty cheap these days, so this would be quite a viable option.
'Course, if more of the run is a concern, another option would be to watch the Blue Water dub, which on top of having better scripts, was edited for airing in the UK and Canada on YTV and Toonami during the day, for primarily a child audience.

Though I once again point to my earlier suggestion of just watching the first two DB movies, then jumping in at episode 16, if the contents of the first 13 episodes are concerning. Switching dubs during your run could be confusing, so...

[JohnnyCashKami]

there is also explicit nudity (Bulma pulling up her dress anybody?).

Bulma also showed her tits on Dragon Ball but it was only shown for a split-second so it's easy to miss that.

By the way, kids in school learn how the human male and female bodies work and are so I don't see the big deal about this. Seems like overprotective parents trying to shelter their kids.

[KBABZ]

there is also explicit nudity (Bulma pulling up her dress anybody?).

Bulma also showed her tits on Dragon Ball but it was only shown for a split-second so it's easy to miss that.

I think saying Bulma showed her tits is being a bit generous! I presume you're talking about the scene where Krillin pulls down her top to get Roshi to accidentally expose the Invisible Man with his nose-bleed. The breasts themselves are only on-screen for two frames (technically six but that's an anime frame rate thing).

[Robo4900]

there is also explicit nudity (Bulma pulling up her dress anybody?).

Bulma also showed her tits on Dragon Ball but it was only shown for a split-second so it's easy to miss that.

I think saying Bulma showed her tits is being a bit generous! I presume you're talking about the scene where Krillin pulls down her top to get Roshi to accidentally expose the Invisible Man with his nose-bleed. The breasts themselves are only on-screen for two frames (technically six but that's an anime frame rate thing).

What, this scene?

I seem to remember hearing an account that when the Blue Water dub reached this scene, they removed one frame from it(Play it through slowly and you'll see why), but otherwise left it intact. Arguably the only offending part is a single video frame(Not simply a single animation frame, but a single video frame), which almost takes this to the tier of those Disney single-frame gags the animators used to put in which get censored on the DVD releases in case people freeze-frame this stuff.

Though, on that note, I imagine Toei will probably censor this when they get to it in their HD master...

[MasenkoHA]

There’s hardly any thing explicit and graphic in Dragon Ball’s nudity less you count seeing Goku’s junk way too many times.

Roshi and Oolong’s behavior (especially Roshi if you’re watching the English dub a lot of Oolong’s perversion was curbed) is definitely problematic but as long as your 9 year old knows that kind of stuff isn’t okay to imitate its nothing damaging

[KBABZ]

Though, on that note, I imagine Toei will probably censor this when they get to it in their HD master...

Maybe they'll take a page from the old days and censor it with an impact flash!

[Hellspawn28]

I feel like characters getting limbs cut off with blood coming out can still be for kids and still safe for them to watch. The old Gamera movies had blood coming out with their arms and legs being cut off and they are made for small children after all.

[sangofe]

I feel like characters getting limbs cut off with blood coming out can still be for kids and still safe for them to watch. The old Gamera movies had blood coming out with their arms and legs being cut off and they are made for small children after all.

The thing to watch out for is if they start to mimic the violence. The sexual humor is just funny for them. Extremely funny according to my 5 year old.

[MaGyunia]

Most definitely, you should, but with supervision (as in everything when a parent or caretaker takes care of a child in all of his aspects, emotional growth, mental health, physical health, everything).

Dragon Ball (referring to the entirety of the story here, with obvious focus on the canon long sequence of events) contains positive and constructive values such as friendship, never giving up, believing in oneself and in others, protecting the weaker, your friends and others in general, always wanting more and never being satisfied with you have and have achieved (in Dragon Ball's case, battle power, of course), etc. etc. The show (DB, DBZ, even the movies, DBSuper) appealed throughout the generations and the decades to fans (and even non-fans) of all age groups, from children to perfect adults. The downside - and here's where you might need to incur in some supervision - might be that there's quite a lot of blood and guts, violence, deaths, genocides, but that's to be expected in a show that first started as a slice of life anime and then Toriyama saw the potential for it to become something serious and darker, with the introduction of Tenshinhan but especially from Piccolo Daimao onwards. I think that up to a certain age it's not recommendable to watch DBZ and even DB post-Piccolo Daimao, but 9 is fine in these terms. There are much more ominous, violent, darker, serious and even "sick" animes out there, and those are the ones which you mustn't show to your kid. But, again, those are only known and accessible to anime otakus, Dragon Ball is one of the most well known franchises in the world. Just joking here, but I think almost everybody in the world knows who Son Goku is, and how to perform the gesture to charge and shoot a Kamehameha, or transforming into a Super Saiya-jin, etc. I personally typically avoid things (movies, animes, music, etc.) which is "too" well-known, because it's usually a sign that it's too commercial, but Dragon Ball is unique even in that sense.

[JohnnyCashKami]

Though, on that note, I imagine Toei will probably censor this when they get to it in their HD master...

Censor, how? Add a khaki bra?

TOEI may outright remove it altogether.

[Robo4900]

Though, on that note, I imagine Toei will probably censor this when they get to it in their HD master...

Censor, how? Add a khaki bra?

TOEI may outright remove it altogether.

It's a 1-frame thing. Easy enough to just replace it with the frame before last, since most of the animation usually moves on twos or threes, so it'd present the illusion of the same animated frame staying present for one more film frame instead of the offending animation frame getting in there.

And the two or three frames before that, which could be seen as just slightly too far, you could easily just move her shirt up a little, and it'd seem far less risqué.

[KBABZ]

Though, on that note, I imagine Toei will probably censor this when they get to it in their HD master...

Censor, how? Add a khaki bra?

TOEI may outright remove it altogether.

It's a 1-frame thing. Easy enough to just replace it with the frame before last, since most of the animation usually moves on twos or threes, so it'd present the illusion of the same animated frame staying present for one more film frame instead of the offending animation frame getting in there.

And the two or three frames before that, which could be seen as just slightly too far, you could easily just move her shirt up a little, and it'd seem far less risqué.

Heck I could probably remove that last frame entirely. It's such a split-second moment that it'd be quite easy to smooth over the jump in the audio edit (especially since there's no music during that scene).

[Hulk10]

I'd say the show is ok for a 9 year old to watch. I saw Disney's Fantasia as a child and that showed Centaurettes with bare breasts and small naked Cupids and naked female fairies and it never bothered me.

[JohnnyCashKami]

The Gohan SSJ2 scene may be eligible to be considered highly offensive by today's modern standards. There's a beheaded head talking (Artificial Human No. 16), then he gets stomped to death and blood comes out of it.. can't have that, that's gotta be censored out completely.

I'm being sarcastic but Nicktoons did partially that, they removed the blood bits but kept the talking head. If you're going to censor, then take out the whole thing.

[KBABZ]

The Gohan SSJ2 scene may be eligible to be considered highly offensive by today's modern standards. There's a beheaded head talking (Artificial Human No. 16), then he gets stomped to death and blood comes out of it.. can't have that, that's gotta be censored out completely.

On the Blu-Ray version of Kai that I watched I don't recall seeing any blood. Maybe some oil though.

[JohnnyCashKami]

On the Blu-ray version of Kai that I watched I don't recall seeing any blood. Maybe some oil though.

What Blu-ray release was that? The blood is generally on most home releases for the Gohan SSJ2 scene with Cell and 16.

[Darkprince410]

On the Blu-ray version of Kai that I watched I don't recall seeing any blood. Maybe some oil though.

What Blu-ray release was that? The blood is generally on most home releases for the Gohan SSJ2 scene with Cell and 16.

It's oil, not blood. He's purely mechanical after all.

[MCDaveG]

Man, I saw Aliens when I was 7 years old... so, I think DBZ is OK
I do not know how in US, as in Europe the child protection against violence and sexual content is shifting as well towards older kids, but growing up in the 90's, we were watching violent movies with Stallone or Schwarzenegger and turned out fine.
My brother saw DBZ when he was 6 years old and he loves it since and he is OK. He is 15 years now and they are urbexing with his friends, but otherwise, he is not violent, does not drink and does not smoke.
It is just about your preference as a father
Personally, I think that DB and DBZ is more of a 10-14 demographic, therefore for teens

[JohnnyCashKami]

It's oil, not blood. He's purely mechanical after all.

That's beyond the point, people unaware with the show will assume that it's blood because it's red so it's something to consider.

as in Europe the child protection against violence and sexual content is shifting as well towards older kids

That depends between countries as not all follow the same rules/laws. And whether it's in the EU or not.