How did you come to know about dragonball?

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How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by chongjasmine » Mon Apr 20, 2020 5:02 am

What is your first exposure to dragon ball?

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Mon Apr 20, 2020 7:05 am

I was living in Arizona in 1999 before it ever premiered in my country just a few months later.

I remember being intrigued because up until then I had only watched American cartoons from Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, so as I hadn't even been exposed to Pokemon at that stage Dragon Ball Z was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Obviously this was the point when season 3 was first airing so I had just seen a few episodes here and there, mainly of the Namek and Frieza stuff, but it soon became clear to me that this was a serialized show you had to follow along from episode to episode to know what was going on.

It was March of 2000 that it debuted in Ireland, I started watching from Raditz onwards like many of us in the western world, and the rest is history.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by mancini » Mon Apr 20, 2020 7:16 am

I was searching for a nice manga character for my sister and accidentally came across the character "Bulma". I chased after the origin of the character and found she features in the "Dragon Ball" manga series and it also has video games..

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by XanatosVanBadass » Mon Apr 20, 2020 8:50 am

Mostly a combination of internet boards/fan subs as well as the International Channel back in the day.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Matches Malone » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:17 am

I had vague knowledge about it due to my friends always playing the video games back in the Ps2 era, but my first real experience of it was the first Broly movie. After that I went back and watched all of Z then DB (I wish I would've watched them in order though). To this day, watching DB and Z for the first time was my best entertainment experience ever. Seeing all the characters develop and the classic scenes play out was something truly amazing.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Robo4900 » Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:58 am

Watched it on TV a bunch with my siblings back when it was on here in the UK. I don't remember when I first became aware of it, though.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:25 am

When it aired on Cartoon Network circa the Ocean dub so sometime between late 1998 to early to mid 1999.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:38 am

It was early on a weekend probably in 1995; my brother was changing channels and decided to keep it on this "cartoon" where a spiky long-haired character was telling a spiky shorter-haired character that he was an alien and they were brothers.

I would watch on and off from then, seeing the Tree of Might featured as a three-part episode. And then, it was hyped up as coming to Cartoon Network's Toonami block, where I was able to see the series from start to finish (with a bunch of restarts along the way).

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by JulieYBM » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:20 am

October 1998: a young girl and her friend--another girl three years older than her--were organizing Pokemon cards into a black-colored binder. Her bedroom at the time had its own television, a shoddy old thing long lost to time. Her friend changed the channel to an episode of some show on some channel the younger girl never watched: a man with tall hair and roughed up clothes pointed a finger gun at a bunch of green people. The younger girl ran off to her brother's bedroom to double check what was airing on Power Rangers in Space that day. It was an episode where the Silver Ranger needed to recharge his powers.

The younger girl was later aghast to learn that Cartoon Network--a network she was not much familiar with--was also airing Season Two episodes of Beast Wars she had never seen. You mean Optimus Primal survived that escape pod explosion?! How?! And his look was different?! What was going on?! From there she began to watch this 'Cartoon Network'--then Channel 34--much more often. Eventually she began to watch Dragon Ball Z and was absolutely flabbergasted the first time she saw it: a promo for a DRAGON BALL Z MOVIE?! Holy crap!! The girl would watch that movie in complete awe of seeing that shitty Rock the Dragon intro for the girl time. He was on the living room floor, sitting left of the older girl's younger brother. The lights were dimmed. It was like being a part of history for the first time. Well, for an eight year old.

The re-runs became endless. The girl waited and waited, even learning to use The Internet to search for news about Dragon Ball Z episodes past Reacoom's defeat. When was Gokuu going to finally be the rest of the Gi'nyuu?! What about FREEZA?! The girl was positively on edge.

Then, it happened. She went in for a dentist appointment in early 1999. The girl was terribly afraid of the dentist. And then, as she existed the office after another traumatizing dentist appointment...she overheard It. A slightly older girl was asking her parent if they could go to Suncoast Video to pick up the new Dragon Ball Z tapes. The younger girl was shocked. Somehow she convinced her mom to take her there. Once there she found it: the holy grail: two new Dragon Ball Z VHS were released. It was a miracle. The girl could only swing for one, though. A single 'uncut' VHS cost $19.98 and she didn't have a single dime to her name. Reluctantly, she picked the tape with FOUR--YES FOUR--new episodes!! Gi'nyuu was on the cover...in Gokuu's clothes?! She would have to parse the details she was skipping over for herself.

When she got home the girl instantly popped the VHS into the living room VCR and was greeted by the most amazing sight: a cartoon with copious amounts of blood. She felt instantly uneasy. Nevertheless, she watched that VHS over and over like a bitch. From then on out, every first Tuesday of the month, the girl would either go to Suncoast for an 'uncut' VHS or go to Target, where the edited versions were sold for $9.98. Because the Target was much closer to her house she typically sprung for the two edited VHS just to see more episodes of the plot. Getting anywhere from six-to-seven new episodes of plot a month after such an endless dry spell was a revolutionary event for the girl. She amassed a collection up until the battle with the Pure Majin Buu by which time she had become an eleven or twelve year old girl and decided she was Too Old for Dragon Ball. Toonami had Mature Annamay now, like Gundam, Zoids, Yuugi-Ou or Tenchi.

Like sand through the hourglass, time passed. Dragon Ball Z was announced to be getting a 'remastered' release. The girl was caught up in the excitement and had even joined a forum for discussing Dragon Ball. The forum was small, quaint and informative. The girl bought the first Remastered DVD set--it was 'edited' in that it was missing footage. After years of bitching about 4Kids editing their cartoons the girl had come to the conclusion that she needed to be Principled on the subject. From there on out, she began watching her cartoons in their original language. It was nevertheless fun seeing and hearing Dragon Ball in such a new light, though. Japanese voices, more mature music and music placement, BLOOD!! Her love for Dragon Ball was rekindled and remained that way.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by MasenkoHA » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:42 am

JulieYBM wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:20 am . Toonami had Mature Annamay now, like ...., Yuugi-Ou
wut

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:48 am

It was sometime back around mid 2000 or so that i'd became aware about the series (I was just six years old at the time, man do i feel so old. XD) when the Cell arc episodes were in first run on Toonami and i first saw a little bit during the occasional sleepless nights when i'd be up watching with my dad who mainly watched some of the other shows on the block (ReBoot, Gundam.etc). Shortly afterward i'd started really gaining an interest when my first cousin began watching and we'd both watch together for a while especially by the Majin Buu arc and once the original DB series started airing dubbed.
Last edited by SuperSaiyaManZ94 on Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Polyphase Avatron » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:58 am

MasenkoHA wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:25 am When it aired on Cartoon Network circa the Ocean dub so sometime between late 1998 to early to mid 1999.
Same here.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by JulieYBM » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:10 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:42 am
JulieYBM wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:20 am . Toonami had Mature Annamay now, like ...., Yuugi-Ou
wut
Oh, derp. I meant to fix that error. In middle school--which is where I fell out of Dragon Ball--I was importing Hong Kong bootlegs of Japanese Yuugi-Ou! Duel Monsters.

Image

But thank you for reading my long post enough to notice my error.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Vijay » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:55 pm

Back in 1997, while I was randomly watchin random tv channel. Saw energetic monkey boy fighting some armed soldiers...noted the day & time it premiered.

Became on&off routine till dude fought big mean large tall green guy (didn't know it was Piccolo Daimou) & got addicted to it....

Dat was Dragonball...them Z came. It became part & parcel of life. Till I was 12. Dats about it

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by MyVisionity » Mon Apr 20, 2020 5:16 pm

Probably caught the 95 BLT dub at some point. Didn't give a shit. Then a year or two later overheard two kids in the lunch line... "Man Saturday mornings are all about Dragon Ball Z... That's my show!" "Cool! Did you watch it when it was just Dragon Ball?" "Yeah man". Still didn't give a shit. Couple years later was watching Toonami, took notice, hanging in the Suncoast, took notice. Still still didn't give a shit. It was around Fall of 1999 that I started hanging with folks who were into DBZ, and that's when I finally began giving a shit. Watching the Freeza saga unfold on Toonami, reruns, fansubs, internet summaries, video games, T-shirts, etc. That's how it all started.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by ABED » Mon Apr 20, 2020 5:25 pm

My dad was a Navy pilot and we got stationed in Japan for two years (1991-1993) and while it was an American base that got US channels, we also got a few Japanese channels, so the kids in the neighborhood knew about DB. When it started airing in the states, I happened to catch it on TV while watching Saturday morning cartoons. I remembered the name and watched it from then on.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by KorgDTR2000 » Tue Apr 21, 2020 1:55 pm

I watched the BLT dub in 1995 before it just disappeared. I never remembered the name of the show and any time something anime aired I thought that was it.

I was resigned to never knowing what it was for four years until some kids at school started watching DBZ. I thought the protagonist looked familiar, but he was an adult... Then my friend printed out some coloring pages and I saw the Oozaru and knew immediately that this was 100% related to the show I'd watched as a kid. I poked around and found a picture with adult Goku standing under the DBZ logo and right next to him was kid Goku under the Dragon Ball logo. After years of wondering and hoping it all came together.

I watched DBZ religiously until they reverted to the Ocean dub in the middle of the Cell Games. That threw me off big time and I just stopped watching. I didn't get back into it until after Boo had entered the scene and I'd forgotten the voices had changed. It tripped me out when I played the Budokai games and the voices for characters like Boo and Vegeto were so different.

I didn't actually get to go back and revisit the original Dragon Ball until the Blue Water dub began airing again on YTV, in 2004. It premiered in a block with GT, right after the episode where Boo destroys the Earth (a rerun I believe). So it took almost 10 years to go full circle.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Planetnamek » Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:02 pm

First saw it in 98 on Cartoon Network like a lot of people did, I didn't have cable myself(and still don't as i've come to see it as a rip-off) so I could only ever catch episodes when I went with my mom to visit my grandmother once a week since she had cable. For whatever reason I never sought out any of the DVDs or tapes from my local library despite doing so for Sailor Moon and Pokemon.

Like a lot of kids I was blown away by how over-the-top and violent it was, even with some of the blood trimmed for TV it was still way more extreme then any of the cartoons i'd grown up with, the fight scenes were epic and like nothing i'd ever seen before. It led me to check out other shows on Toonami like Tenchi Muyo and Outlaw Star. Though I had no idea of the origin of any of those shows as it wasn't until many years later that I knew what anime was.

Never saw it in syndication and i'm not sure any of my local stations ever carried it.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by TheBigBoy » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:50 pm

An old issue of EGM from 1993 where they covered Super Butoden. I was immediately drawn to the wild character designs and the huge energy blasts. DBZ games got a decent amount of coverage from video game magazines in their import sections. I pieced together that the games were based on a TV show but I really didn't know any details of the story.

In September 1996 I remember looking at the local TV guide and it said right there at 6:30 AM on Saturday morning on FOX 59: "Dragon Ball Z". I knew I had to check it out. I was hooked from day 1.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Tue Apr 21, 2020 5:02 pm

I may have seen Dragon Ball figures and pictures in the mid-90s at local collector shops without knowing what it was, but I don't 100% remember. The first time that I know about Dragon Ball that I remember was back in 1997 for my 6th birthday. My dad got a VHS tape of the first couple episodes of Dragon Ball and he bought it at Suncoast. My dad was like "The guy at the store said that this is a popular cartoon for kids from Japan. I know you like Japanese stuff".

It was this VHS tape

Image

When I first watch Dragon Ball, I thought it was meh and didn't care for it (My sister enjoys watching it on tape). I do remember later that year in 1997, I saw DBZ episodes on VHS being sold at Suncoast and I was like "I thought that spiky hair guy is a kid? Did he grow up in this show?". It took me until 2001 for me to finally get into Dragon Ball because I remember I dislike DBZ for a few years.
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