How did you come to know about dragonball?

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by ABED » Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:04 pm

My dad was a Navy pilot and we lived in Japan from 1991-1993, and DB was popular among my friends. We got US channels and a few Japanese channels. Then when I came back to the states, I didn't think I'd see it here as I didn't see much anime in the US at the time. Then one Saturday I sat down to watch Saturday morning cartoons and saw someone with weird hair jumping from tree branch to tree branch before punching down a tree for firewood. Then I heard a woman call for Gohan and Goku. I remembered the name and though "Oh, it's Dragon Ball Z". I just so happened to see DBZ during it's original airing in syndication. Somehow I lucked into see it from DBZ episode 1 when it first aired.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Yuli Ban » Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:17 pm

Saw it around midnight on Toonami some time in 2001 or 2002. Boo had just been released. From that, all I remember was him referring to himself in the first person constantly (to the point I could have sworn that the only thing he could say was "Boo" like a Pokemon),

I absolutely didn't care for it and even remember not liking it. That changed at some point later in 2002 when I drew this really, really shitty stick man figure shooting a kamehameha-like wave (and god do I mean shitty, like holy shit). For some baffling, inexplicable reason, the moment I finished that turbo-shit drawing, something clicked in my brain and I went, "Hey, this is like that show. I should watch it some more!" My dad also had some VHSes of it, including one of Gohan right after he had defeated Cell. I needed to see more, and the rest is history.

Literally. Because my initial time in the fandom was largely watching reruns on TV. It's strange because I have that memory of Boo from before I even liked the show, but I distinctly remember the whole "the show keeps starting over after reaching the Ginyu fight" aspect. And because DBZ was unlike any cartoon I had ever seen before, I also misunderstood the concept of "the story doesn't reset after every episode" and missed big gaps at times. I missed the near entirety of the entire Artificial Human arc— for child me, Dragon Ball Z was Saiyans + Frieza & his henchmen and Majin Buu. After Garlic Jr., the only bit of material I remember at all from the intervening arcs was a few episodes here and there (Goku vs. 19, Piccolo meeting Cell, Trunks fighting Cell, and maybe a couple others). The first time I experienced that part of the series was through Legacy of Goku II; I didn't watch it in its entirety until I got the full series on DVD in 2009. I also skipped Gohan's stint in high school and most of Majin Vegeta's arc; my memories there start when he knocks out Goku and goes to fight Boo, and keeps up from there to the end of Z and GT. Considering I also saw all of DB, it's funny that there was once this big Trunks & Cell-shaped hole in my memories of the series back in the day.


But that's just fluff.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by MyVisionity » Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:18 pm

ABED wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:04 pm My dad was a Navy pilot and we lived in Japan from 1991-1993, and DB was popular among my friends. We got US channels and a few Japanese channels. Then when I came back to the states, I didn't think I'd see it here as I didn't see much anime in the US at the time. Then one Saturday I sat down to watch Saturday morning cartoons and saw someone with weird hair jumping from tree branch to tree branch before punching down a tree for firewood. Then I heard a woman call for Gohan and Goku. I remembered the name and though "Oh, it's Dragon Ball Z". I just so happened to see DBZ during it's original airing in syndication. Somehow I lucked into see it from DBZ episode 1 when it first aired.
I like how you expanded upon your original post from Page 1. The description of the first episode helps add a visual touch. And it was indeed quite lucky. :)

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by AlexSketchy04 » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:16 pm

I don't remember for sure, but i do know i catched a bit of the ending on Cartoon Netwok LA around 2007, i loved the visual of Zenkai Power, around that time i catched an episode of the OG DB around 2008/09

I didn't got into it until Kai premiered in 2011

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by JustAlex1997 » Mon Jul 27, 2020 2:28 am

It was sometime in the early 2000's. Browsing through the channel listings, my parents found this show called Dragon Ball. Perhaps to get rid of me, they said that it sounded cool, and I headed to my room to watch it. There was this little kid with crazy hair, a bald kid, and an old man testing their speed. I immediately fell in love with it.

In Canada, YTV had an anime marathon every Friday. I'd be excited for that all week, and I'd watch all three Dragon Ball shows (as well as shows like Inuyasha, One Piece, Gundam, Zatch Bell!, and so on) for hours.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Hugo2003DBZ » Thu Jul 29, 2021 8:19 pm

When I was 3 years old, Dragon Ball was broadcast in Spain on the national channel Cuatro and on the Galician regional channel. I watched it with my brother, in addition to other anime like Shin Chan, Saint Seiya or Naruto.

But Dragon Ball kept repeating it all day for years and I ended up hooked.

Then I bought the Selecta Vision DVDs and I noticed that the audio quality was shit(in all language), while the TV audio was in perfect condition. And here we are, I collected several recordings and learned how to sync it. Although in the end all this will be forgotten and in Spain the audio quality is of little importance to people. Only 4 geeks we noticed the mediocre quality of Selecta's audios. It's sad.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by theherodjl » Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:42 pm

I first saw DBZ in 1997 on some channel, I don't remember which one since we lived in Guam at the time. I'm pretty sure it was the Ocean dub since it was in English and it was the episode with Vegeta & Monster Zarbon's 2nd fight. I didn't get to see much else of it though since my older brother switched the TV to another channel only a couple minutes later. I didn't watch DBZ again until Toonami in mid-1998.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by NeoZ Duwang » Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:06 am

My father was already a fan before I was born, he found out about the series with the first brazillian dub in 1996 and fell in love with it immediately, so when I was a baby he always watched Dragon Ball with me (and a lot of old animes too, but Dragon Ball was the one we watched the most, as it's the longest one he likes)


The unfortunate side effect is that I can't tell my first reaction to basically anything other than Dragon Ball Super, as the whole story was so integrated in my memories that it's like I was born with them
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by PurestEvil » Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:41 pm

My first exposure was watching bits of Namek saga episodes of (what I believe was) DBZ Kai on a TV in the cafeteria of the community college where I took sunday swimming lessons at (I was around 6). I did not manage to become a fan, though, as I LOATHED cliffhangers back then.
I then watched the second half of Resurrection F with my cousins two years ago, thinking it was pretty badass (to say I was sorely disappointed when I came around to watch it a second time is an understatement), although I had no connection to any of the characters.
Then I discovered TFS a few months later, which finally got me started watching the four Dragon Ball series throughout 2020.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by MasenkoHA » Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:54 pm

PurestEvil wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:41 pm My first exposure was watching bits of Namek saga episodes of (what I believe was) DBZ Kai on a TV in the cafeteria of the community college where I took sunday swimming lessons at (I was around 6)
I graduated high school like a week before Kai started airing in the States :| Christ I feel old.


.
I did not manage to become a fan, though, as I LOATHED cliffhangers back then.
I had the exact opposite perspective as a kid I loved when shows ended an episode with To Be Continued because it made the story feel bigger and with higher stakes that couldn’t be told in 22 minutes.

Also thought it was cheap when Pokemon and Digimon did it for every episode even when the ending was rarely ever a cliffhanger.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Planetnamek » Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:28 pm

MasenkoHA wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:54 pm
PurestEvil wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:41 pm My first exposure was watching bits of Namek saga episodes of (what I believe was) DBZ Kai on a TV in the cafeteria of the community college where I took sunday swimming lessons at (I was around 6)
I graduated high school like a week before Kai started airing in the States :| Christ I feel old.


.
I did not manage to become a fan, though, as I LOATHED cliffhangers back then.
I had the exact opposite perspective as a kid I loved when shows ended an episode with To Be Continued because it made the story feel bigger and with higher stakes that couldn’t be told in 22 minutes.

Also thought it was cheap when Pokemon and Digimon did it for every episode even when the ending was rarely ever a cliffhanger.
I was already several years into college when Kai was airing, and god yes I remember those evil cliffhangers, I always dreaded hearing Dale Kelly's voice not because I dislike him as the narrator, but because I knew that meant i'd have to wait for the next episode.

With Pokemon it was less glaring because they rarely ended on outright cliffhangers, most of their episodes were stand alone and they generally resolved the plot of the week within the episode, there were only a few multi-parter episodes(the three-part Lugia/Silver arc in Master Quest jumps out)and it's only in recent years that the series started doing season long arcs(Pokemon Hunter J, Team Rocket going more serious and trying to steal the comet, I was particularly annoyed when the planned 2-part episode for the latter arc got cancelled altogether due to the Fukushima quakes, though they did write a new 3 part episode to make up for it later in the season).

Haven't seen Digimon in a while so I can't comment on if they did end up genuine cliffhangers(though i've got plans to buy the complete series soon).
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by omaro34 » Tue Aug 03, 2021 2:27 pm

first episode I ever watched on YTV in the 90's was Raditz arriving on Earth. I distinctly remember it was the Ocean Dub as well. I miss Scott McNeil's snake like voice as Piccolo.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Yosheets » Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:05 pm

By browsing the Neoseeker Dragon Ball Forum in 2009 and meeting Mishimi.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Demon Prince Piccolo » Thu Aug 26, 2021 1:07 pm

I vaguely remember seeing something of the Saiyan Saga VERY early in my life, when I was about 4 or so (so 1997). I remember seeing scouter Vegeta, so it's possible it was Toonami or something. But it wasn't until 3rd grade (circa 2001) that Dragon Ball got on my radar, when I heard classmates talking about it and about Goku and Vegeta. I had been a Pokemon anime fan, but suddenly I was fixated on getting to watch Dragon Ball.

My family couldn't afford cable at the time, but one day my mom and I were walking through Blockbuster. I saw the Funimation VHS "Babidi Saga-Rivals," and asked my mom if we could get it. She bought it for me, and I had to wait for my dad to finish watching sports before I could pop it in. The wait was agonizing. Finally, I inserted the VHS, and I was transfixed by the commercials for the old DragonBallZ.com website, etc. Then finally, there's the "Stand by...for DRAGON.BALL.Z!!!! Coming next!" and then the rest is history.

These episodes comprised of the beginning of Goku vs Majin Vegeta. So immediately, I was obsessed with Goku and Vegeta. Eventually, I got a few more of the random VHS tapes containing 3 episodes apiece, and later on we got cable, so I was able to tune in and watch. It was the odd episode here and and there, starting with the Great Saiyaman arc, and then later Toonami went back to showing the Ocean dub of the Saiyan and Namek/Ginyu Sagas. I pored over those episodes, and whatever I couldn't watch, I researched on DragonBallZ.com. Of course, this obsession carried over into OG Dragon Ball once it was on Toonami as well, and I remember being utterly ecstatic when we got the Piccolo arcs for Dragon Ball and further into the Buu Saga for Z. We eventually had to cancel cable again, and of course it was at key episodes in those arcs lol. In the years since I've acquired the DVDs and have watched all the episodes. :)
The story of DRAGON BALL starts from the moment Goku met Bulma. I don't really mind the Z, so long as it's understood that it's not the true beginning of the story.

I actually prefer the Goku vs Tenshinhan and Goku vs Piccolo Jr. rivalries to the Goku vs Vegeta rivalry.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by ClutchBangstrip » Thu Aug 26, 2021 4:13 pm

It came on, Saturday mornings on Fox Kids way back in the day.

Me and my older brother would record the episodes, pause on scenes we liked and spend hours drawing the scenes. It was magic.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Bridgeman » Fri Aug 27, 2021 11:21 am

I think it started airing here in 2000, I was ten years old at the time. There was two episodes on Cartoon Network every day, one rerun of the previous episode and one new one. On saturdays and sundays we had Dragon Ball Z Rewind, where they aired all of the episodes of that week in a row. Later on it moved to another channel, which later became Toonami. Me and my classmates were hooked pretty quickly, we were nuts about it. We bought the trading cards, the action figures, the magazines. And even though Rewind was just reruns, I'd still watch it all again.

One thing we all thought was super annoying, was that for long periods of time the show would stop at a certain point and then start all over again, until it eventually finally progressed. For example, early on it would stop after the Ginyu saga, then start all over before they finally aired the Frieza saga. Later, they would stop several times after the Cell saga, just before the Cell Games saga, and start from the beginning. We so badly wanted to see what happened in the Cell Games, but we had to be very patient indeed.

Back then they also sold some of the movies on VHS, I bought a few just out of interest. But I was very shocked to learn the cast and names were completely different from what I knew, and what I now know is the Big Green dub. Me and my friends from back then watched them a couple times just to laugh our butts off. The cover pictures had pictures of a completely different movie than the one on the tape, and the names were fucking weird ("Super Rivals", "Super Battle in the World", etc)

Also saw some of Dragon Ball GT on TV, don't recall if I saw it all. I think I did, because I vividly remember the Shadow Dragons saga, and the fact that Syn Shenron had a different name here. The Blue Water dub aired here, and he was called Li Shenron or whatever. General Rildo was called General Lock, and Giru was called Gill. I was very fucking confused when I was older and saw the Funimation dub for the first time. They started airing GT from the very first episode, so no "Lost Episodes" here. Back then we didn't quite realize how bad it was, we just wanted more Dragon Ball and thought it was cool.

The original Dragon Ball never aired here, and I have to admit to this day I've never seen it all the way through. It's very different and misses some of the things I love about DBZ.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:43 pm

Bridgeman wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 11:21 amThe original Dragon Ball never aired here, and I have to admit to this day I've never seen it all the way through. It's very different and misses some of the things I love about DBZ.
Original Dragon Ball aired in the UK and Ireland with the Blue Water dub. But yeah, being from Ireland I can totally relate to being confused years later discovering the Funimation dub of GT with the drastically different score, "II Shenron" being referred to as "Omega Shenron", etc
Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Anonymous Friend » Fri Aug 27, 2021 1:48 pm

I was living in the south Bronx, NY in the early 90s. Kept hearing about this japanimation import thing called Dragonball. Never got any real info about it. I woild pass some shop windows where they would have one of the VS games on display. Mid-90s, one of the local stations started airing either OGDB or early Z Gohan stuff. There was a short kid running around doing stuff. I only managed to wake p early enough to catch an episode once before it went away at like 5am.

Then came Toonami.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Asin » Fri Aug 27, 2021 8:51 pm

I think my first experience with Dragon Ball was when I was young and I came across the Flash fangame Dragon Ball Devolution back in its' early stages. Back then, I remember trying out the little Tenkaichi Budokai mode, and I distinctly remember seeing Trunks and thinking he was a girl. After that, I forgot about DB for a while until I ended up on the Dragon Ball Wiki during my countless travels on the Internet. I am aware it's cruddy now, but it helped me learn more about the series, and I found the stuff I was learning about to be pretty neat, and eventually I found Dragon Ball Dissection on YouTube and have fully become someone who can call themselves a Dragon Ball fan!

...Why do I feel I'm going to regret saying this?

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Drepanosaurus » Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:56 am

I rented Final Bout on the PS1 without knowing that it was based on anime back in 1998.

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