How did you come to know about dragonball?

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emperior
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by emperior » Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:24 am

I first watched it on TV (Italy) when I was very young. I have no idea what episode I first saw and if it was DB or Z.

I already watched, and liked quite a lot, violent shows like Hokuto no Ken and Tiger Mask, which had very little animation. And I was a big fan of Batman The Animated Series and the other animated shows of Batman, so I guess I always loved to see animes of though guys beating up evil guys.

So I bought some DB DVDs as soon as I saw them.
The luck got me to buy the Bardock’s TV special. I still own that disk. I absolutely LOVED it. And still do.

I remember I used to frantically look for Dragon Ball’s timeslot in a magazine my parents used to buy which listed all the programmed airings for the week.
At the time I knew already Goku was supposed to transform into a Super Saiyan because the TV show’s opening ended with the shot of the cast and Goku transforming. But by watching the show in random order, I understood very little. I was in only for the action and the ki blasts, basically.

Eventually I finally got to experience the show more or less in its entirety, including GT, and bought lots of videogames and even found some manga volumes of early DB (which helped me experience the first part of the serie better).
One of my fondest nostalgic memory was when, after watching almost all of DB (I might have missed some of the earliest episodes) Goku finally became an adult and I was glued to the screen watching the 23rd Budokai for the first time, knowing that now that Goku was an adult my favorite part of the story was about to start.

I also saved money specifically for the Budokai Tenkaichi games.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by CuppaKofe » Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:06 pm

I vaguely remember watching Z with my brother when it was on syndication on Fox early in the morning. Goku and Vegeta's fight is what I recall the most about those times. A little while later it started airing on YTV with a different opening theme, by that time my brother stopped watching it, but I was hooked. I watched those YTV reruns for what felt like years waiting for it to go past the recoome fight. It eventually did, but with different voice actors. Around this time we got broadband internet access, and my world was opened up to fansub rips. While I still watched the dub, getting to watch ahead with the subs was too alluring, especially since it took us a while to get to the android saga due to more reruns. DBZ was getting really popular now, and I remember printing out pictures of late Dragon Ball Z and GT screenshots to show friends who didn't believe me. Those awful fanrips also made me think the Japanese version was super hardcore with swearing for years :lol: I distinctly remember the now infamous animelabs subs for Movie 13. Don't fuck with Vegeta's house.

My first exposure to the manga was the Viz Select comic issues my mom got for me. This was also my first exposure to 'the original' Dragon Ball as I had a few of those mixed in with Z issues. No clue what happened to those, I wish I still had them.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by DBZAOTA482 » Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:18 pm

I started off watching DBZ on Toonami like most people in the states.
fadeddreams5 wrote:
DBZGTKOSDH wrote:... Haven't we already gotten these in GT? Goku dies, the DBs go away, and the Namekian DBs most likely won't be used again because of the Evil Dragons.
Goku didn't die in GT. The show sucked him off so much, it was impossible to keep him in the world of the living, so he ascended beyond mortality.
jjgp1112 wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 6:31 am I'm just about done with the concept of reboots and making shows that were products of their time and impactful "new and sexy" and in line with modern tastes and sensibilities. Let stuff stay in their era and give today's kids their own shit to watch.

I always side eye the people who say "Now my kids/today's kids can experience what I did as a child!" Nigga, who gives a fuck about your childhood? You're an adult now and it was at least 15 years ago. Let the kids have their own experience instead of picking at a corpse.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by sailorspazz » Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:14 pm

My exposure started a bit earlier than my actual fandom. The first time I can recall hearing about it was in the summer of 1996. By then, I was already into Sailor Moon and was aware of what anime/manga were. One friend had a copy of Dragon Ball manga vol. 1 in Japanese, and she had printed out some translations from the internet (this was before it was even being released in English!) and was using those to read through it. She showed me some of her favorite gags, so the very first memory I have is of having Bulma flashing Turtle Hermit as my friend explained that her panties had been removed without her knowledge :lol: (and I think my first thought was, "that's dumb, she would definitely notice she wasn't wearing them if she were riding around on a motorcycle.")

My first exposure to the anime was during that same summer. Stayed over at a friend's house one night, and were up so late chatting (as teen girls do :P) that we eventually decided to just stay up all night and watch Sailor Moon when it came on at 6am. We had the TV on for a while before that, and at maybe 5am Dragon Ball came on. Not 100% sure of which episode, though the archives in my brain tell me it may have been the episode where they meet Oolong. I thought it was funny, but still wasn't really into it.

Flash forward a year or so. For whatever reason, I ended up watching Dragon Ball Z on a Saturday morning just because. This time, I pretty much instantly got hooked, and the only explanation I can come up with is being fascinated by Vegeta. It was sometime in the Namek stuff, and though I had no idea who he was, I just saw him running around being a dick to everyone, and I thought, "who is this magnificent asshole? I must know more." So from then on, I would eagerly get up each Saturday morning to watch the 2 episodes they would play. Unfortunately, my local affiliate only seemed to have a limited number of episodes, because it would get to the end of how far the dub had reached, then start over again not from the beginning of Z, but post Saiyan arc. Which meant I just went online and found out everything about the series long before I had the chance to watch most of it :lol:
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by JulieYBM » Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:22 pm

Gosh, I miss the days of local affiliates kind of just doing...whatever. A few years ago one of mine were just playing Loony Tunes in the middle of the day and I was flabbergasted. I wish we could get this kind of unique weirdness again.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Planetnamek » Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:36 pm

JulieYBM wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:22 pm Gosh, I miss the days of local affiliates kind of just doing...whatever. A few years ago one of mine were just playing Loony Tunes in the middle of the day and I was flabbergasted. I wish we could get this kind of unique weirdness again.
Yes I recall watching Saved By the Bell reruns before school(and this was long after the show had ended) in syndication. I also know of some affiliates that aired low-budget direct to video movies early in the morning.
"Why run away from something you're not afraid of?" - Goku

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Mon Apr 27, 2020 4:15 am

Like pretty much every 7 year old kid from south america did: MAGIC KIDS.
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

This forum is so over-dramatic that it's not even funny.
90sDBZ wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:44 pm19 years ago I was rushing home from school to watch DBZ on Cartoon Network, and today I've rushed home from work to watch DBS on Pop. I guess it's true the more things change the more they stay the same. :lol:

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Witty User Name » Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:48 am

Via Latin American Cartoon Network back in 1999/2000, I think. But I only got back into it circa 2006/2007.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Witty User Name » Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:49 am

Cure Dragon 255 wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 4:15 am Like pretty much every 7 year old kid from south america did: MAGIC KIDS.
Which country you're from?

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:53 am

Paraguay!!! I still wish MAGIC KIDS still existed.
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

This forum is so over-dramatic that it's not even funny.
90sDBZ wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:44 pm19 years ago I was rushing home from school to watch DBZ on Cartoon Network, and today I've rushed home from work to watch DBS on Pop. I guess it's true the more things change the more they stay the same. :lol:

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by SpiritBombTriumphant » Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:09 pm

It was 1997 and I was 5 years old. The New Adventures of Johnny Quest was supposed to be on, but when I switched to channel 59 (Cartoon Network/Toonami), I instead was greeted to a gigantic ape rampaging. The moon then got blown up by a green dude wearing a turban.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Stridster » Mon Apr 27, 2020 5:19 pm

Dragon Ball Taiketsu, I don't think I could have asked for a worse introduction into this franchise if I tried :(
My second experience was a lot better tough, it was one of the tenkaichi games on the wii that I played at a friend's house, basically every character and a lot of the general themes of the series was introduced to me there.
I later on gave the show a chance after seeing a lot of dragon ball related videos on the net (super mario bros z, dbz abridged etc) and started watching Z, because I was sadly not aware that this was in fact NOT the starting point, but to my credit I did watch the OG Dragon Ball pretty much immediately when I found out about it and I now start there whenever I decide to rewatch this series, as god had intended.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by ikaos » Mon Apr 27, 2020 9:45 pm

My earliest memories is of channel surfing some local channel and coming across some Ocean dub Namek episode. I was intrigued by the character designs and the fact that people were shooting "fireballs" out of their hands. I also 100% thought Zarbon was a girl. Despite that I don't think I fully paid attention to the series until I started watching Toonami some time in 1998. I slowly got hooked on the serialized nature of the show, and despite the... less than quality dub of season 3, I stuck around.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Thanos » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:06 pm

Back in 2000 at a friend's house. I had a tape recorder that I carried with me everywhere (I was 10, mind you) and didn't have cable, so I filled up a cassette tape with audio of some DBZ episodes and listened back to them over and over. I thought it was a wrestling cartoon or something at the time, and it was months before my family actually ended up getting cable so I remember basically harassing the same friend over email about every little detail about the show. Of course he got some things wrong so there were a lot of weird beliefs and misconceptions about the series that took me until I had the chance to investigate myself to learn. It's weird how starting the show late into the series and having limited internet access left strange gaps in my knowledge. For example, it must've been a whole year before I learned why Vegeta called Goku "Kakarot". Eventually I snuck onto my parents' internet to deep dive information about the series (using Greg Werner's DBZ Info Page, Dragon Ball Arena, DB-Unlimited, Planet Namek, etc.) but that's how it was back then. It's interesting how most of the websites I found when searching for information were biased toward the original Japanese version, which I totally credit for my preference to it rather early despite my first exposure being the FUNi dub on Toonami. I was downloading .WAV files of Nozawa's Goku voice back then and reading about how what you see on TV isn't how the "real" series is. Without that stuff I might still be one of those kids on YouTube complaining about the "granny voice". :lol:
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by DragonBallFoodie » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:41 pm

In the early 2000s on TV. Began with the Saiyan saga. Good times.
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by ArmenianPepsi » Thu Apr 30, 2020 3:09 am

This is my first ever post, and this thread will probably be the best opportunity to express my feelings about DB without having to create a thread that'd eat up space or post in another non-relevant thread. This is gonna be a long one. I'm very much a newbie to the DB universe. Go easy on me lads :)

I was born in 2000, my first exposure at all would be DB Kai in 2010 and some of the video games that my older brother played with his friends on the 360 (Raging Blast 1/2). My older brother was able to watch DBZ on Toonami back in the early late 90's/Early 2000's so I also knew a few things from him talking about it.

I remember actually waking up Saturday mornings to watch it on CW and even watching some episodes on Nicktoons Network. If I remember right I actually kept up with the show until some time into the Frieza Saga then went back to my addiction to Transformers.

When I dipped out, I never came back to DBZ or the DB franchise, but it always sticked in my head as I grew up. Over the 9 or so years since then, I would actually consider plunging head first back into DBZ from time to time, but always backed out because the episode count put me off. When I looked at it, the thought of watching almost 300 22min episodes of just one series seemed daunting. And i'd usualy end up sitting on the fence debating if it would even be worth my time. Basically DB became something that i'd look at from a distance but never really try to get involved with.

But mid-March of this year, I decided to just take the chance. I got the entire series on my PC, and took a headfirst dive into DBZ for the first time in almost a decade. I was afraid that it wouldnt be as good as I remembered, and that my old childhood memories would be tainted forever. But the exact opposite happened. I was just blown away by it. DBZ was everything I hoped it would be and more.

To me this felt like I discovered some grand treasure. It seemed to fill some kind of entertainment void that other shows i've seen before couldn't even begin to compete with. The characters, the world, the animation, the music, the general feel of it. All the qualities I look for just magically clicked together in my head. Even in the parts that I found to be the most "Dull", the artistry still kept my eyes busy. When I watched an episode I usually wouldn't ever tab out to something else and just listened to the audio. It's like a feast for my eyes, everything is just so pleasing to look at. And I'm not just talking about the action scenes, I just love how everything looks. It's the kind of universe that I wish I could live in. And for any piece of media to capture my imagination like that is so so rare.

In interest to keep this shorter than a college thesis paper. I fell head over heals for DBZ. I watched all 291 episodes with no skipping or skimming through. I was not disappointed at all. By the end I felt satisfied. I felt like all the time I spent was well worth it. I'm currently going back to watch the original Dragon Ball, and in the future I may watch through some of the movies and specials. GT and DBS will have to wait. I have such a long way to go I dont even have plans for them.

TLDR - AAAAAAAAAAA :D
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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Cure Dragon 255 » Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:29 am

I am super glad to meet you then!

I am always glad to meet people that actually watched DBZKai on The CW. Shitty as it was I keep on mantaining my defense of the block.
Marz wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:27 pm "Well, the chapter was good, the story was good and so were the fights. But a new transformation, in Dragon Ball? And one that's ugly? This is where we draw the line!!! Jump the Shark moment!!"

This forum is so over-dramatic that it's not even funny.
90sDBZ wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:44 pm19 years ago I was rushing home from school to watch DBZ on Cartoon Network, and today I've rushed home from work to watch DBS on Pop. I guess it's true the more things change the more they stay the same. :lol:

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Melee_Sovereign » Thu Apr 30, 2020 11:53 pm

I randomly saw some of it on TV (I think this was when it was in syndication), and then a year or so later, a lot of kids in my school were talking about it. So I started watching it and got hooked.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by Forte224 » Sat May 02, 2020 12:15 pm

I just ran into it randomly on TV when I was a kid on Cartoon Network/Toonami, and it was the Ocean Dub. The first episode I saw was the one where Gohan and Kuririn are spying on Freeza, Zarbon and Dodoria trying to persuade the Namekian village to hand over their Dragon Ball. I don't think I had ever experienced a "serious" show like this before. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

Then the Namekian warriors showed up and suddenly there's numerical power levels and the warriors could hide those power levels and the fights were awesome and little me was even further hooked. Never looked back. Over two decades later and the franchise has remained so incredibly close to my heart.

It's funny because these days I love the show in an almost completely different way; I'm less concerned about power levels and the serious moments and more concerned about the lighthearted stuff as well as the art and animation, but I still get the same feelings watching it today as I did when I was a kid. There's something about Dragon Ball under the surface that grips me that I've never been able to fully articulate.

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Re: How did you come to know about dragonball?

Post by coltigore » Tue May 05, 2020 10:45 am

So this is gonna sound like a dick move.
My first hearing about dragon ball were ads on TV when I was younger. I grew up in the Kai era, and they used to play ads for it when pokemon was on, which I would watch at my friends house. My friends and I thought it looked weird to we poked fun at our one friend (not sure why we singled him out he didn't even like Dragon Ball) saying he watch it and shows like it. I basically heard nothing about the series until I was around 13, and started playing counter strike, where one of the people I played with (and still do today) played all the games, but never watched the anime or read the manga. I would see occasional ads for it on adult swim until around July of 2019, when I decided to actually watch the series. I've been a super-fan ever since.

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