Anyone got into Dragon Ball BEFORE Saiyans start to become a thing?

[Psajdak]

A lot of time passed, but I believe I was at least aware of titles Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball Z all the way back in 90s, where I saw in various TV schedule newspapers, and magazines also programs for German televisions, for instance.

I still had no idea what it is about, but then in early 2000s in Croatia started Nov@ TV, which among other popular shows like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, South Park, etc., also had original Dragon Ball series.

From what I remember Dragon Ball was one of series that was in Japanese with Croatian subtitles, unlike Pokemon which was Croatian dub of an already dubbed Engliah version...

Unfortunately, at the time in my house we had for a while problem receiving TV signal from Nov@ TV, due to how antenna was positioned.

One day, it seemed that signal is fine, and for the first time I was able to watch Dragon Ball - it was, I believe, around the end of Pilaf saga, and the start of Red Ribbon arc, not sure exactly which episode it was, although for years now I identified Goku wearing those winter clothes with my introduction to Dragon Ball.

...

I wasn't able to watch the entire original series properly at that time, and some episodes I either missed, or watched them on other programs as time passed by.

The rest is history, and for the most part, before I got Internet in 2006, I had to make do with what I had, like for instance being introduced to many things with games like Ultimate Battle 22 and Final Bout, although I had problem understanding what they are talking about, since games had Japanese audio, and French text.
I used to think that 17 is 18's sister, or something, and characters like Dabura, Vegetto, and, dunno, Ozaru Baby were complete novelty for me.

Actualy, I even thought that Super Saiyans are completely different characters!

It was only when I bought Budokai 3, that Z part of story started to make some sense for me, in it I also found out that Bulma ends up with Vegeta, about Broly, Uub, Syn Shenron, SS4 Gogeta...

...

It would have been nice if things were as available once as they are now.

A few years ago I marathoned everything in order of release, including movies, and other non main series content in Japanese with English subtitles, which I watched between the episodes that aired at the time, and all the way up to that one DBZ Kai episode which ends with Goku and Vegeta getting out of Buu.

I guess I was impatient, and at that point tired of Z content, which I kinda regret now since I already got that far, and I missed Shino Kakinuma's performance as Pan, when Yuko Minaguchi was still on hiatus.

In that big marathon of mine I think I only missed one, or two early 90s end of the year special/s...

Although, as a completionist, as someone who prefers to just choose original author, and watch the adaptations of their works in order of release, as long as I don't see Dr. Slump adaptations as well in the entirety, and other Toriyama anime, I will never consider myself as someone who completed Dragon Ball.

I don't read manga, but I wish they animated Jaco manga too before his appearance in Dragon Ball anime.

[eledoremassis02]

My Japanese teacher was a fan of the manga but he left Japan in the late '80s and never seemed to of caught up, so I think he is still unaware of the Saiyans.

[emperior]

My Japanese teacher was a fan of the manga but he left Japan in the late '80s and never seemed to of caught up, so I think he is still unaware of the Saiyans.

I doubt he is due to how popular the serie has gotten.
He may have dropped it for good in the 80s, but he must have seen some ads about DB with an adult Goku transforming. It would definitely be fun to hear his thoughts about it.

[DBZfan29]

My Japanese teacher was a fan of the manga but he left Japan in the late '80s and never seemed to of caught up, so I think he is still unaware of the Saiyans.

I did a presentation on Dragon Ball in college for my manga and anime class. My Japanese teacher said the same thing. He wasn't familiar with any of the transformations.

[Yuli Ban]

I can believe it. Plenty of people drop from a franchise and make so little of an attempt to keep following it that even major, popular aspects of it completely escape them. I mean, Dragon Ball IS fundamentally a little kid's show, so I can see people growing out of it.
Hell, not long ago, I came across someone who used to play Sonic the Hedgehog quite a bit, stopped around 1996, and had absolutely no clue Sega was still making Sonic games, that Sonic got green eyes, or who most of his friends were. And this is a fairly active gamer, too. I didn't ask him, but he didn't even know Shadow the Hedgehog. I've heard people from other franchises' fanbases act the same way respectively; Star Wars fans from the 80s who are just now learning that Midichlorians or Jar Jar Binks exist because they never bothered seeing the prequels or following fan culture; fans of Lord of the Rings never even read the Hobbit, let alone watch the movies; lovers of Saw completely stop watching by the third movie; diehard fans of bands like Black Sabbath or Radiohead not know half of their discography because they just stopped following them (I actually met one person online who was genuinely shocked to put on a Sabbath record and hear Dio singing). I myself haven't followed a shitload of shows and books. I couldn't tell you what the hell is happening in One Piece or has happened for 4/5s of the series despite it being the single most popular manga in the world. I completely stopped watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure only a few episodes in and kept putting off watching each series. Even pop culture osmosis is of no help.

Just because YOU know it and think it's omnipresent doesn't mean it actually is. I'd bet that, even today, only about 4/10 people you encounter on the street in any random place would recognize a Super Saiyan. Still a high number, but far from everyone.

As for people who got into Dragon Ball pre-Saiyan arc, pretty much anyone who actually grew up with the series in Japan or Mexico probably would say yes. I recall one person on the forums who mentioned being a fan of Dr. Slump and then discovered that Toriyama was making a new kung fu gag comic, basically following the franchise from before it even began. Can't get more pre-Saiyan than that.

Most (MOST, not all) Western fans are probably going to disappoint you in that regard.

[EGonzo]

In Mexico they showed DB before Z, so I watched DB multiple times before they announced Z