Do you remember the first time?

[Sonicmark]

It's more a question about your experiences with Dragonball more than Dragonball it's self, so I apologise if I've put it in the wrong section.

Back in the mid-90's, when the first trailer of DBZ shown on cartoon network. It shows Gohan turning into an Oozaru during the saiyan saga, however they didn't actually show the oozaru and since they had not shown Dragonball first, I assumed it was an Anime about people turning into Dragons... how silly of me!

So my question is this, what was YOUR first experience of Dragonball?

[Terra-jin]

I read about it in an anime magazine, and since the Pokemon craze was at its heyday back then, I thought Dragonball was a show around people summoning Dragons instead of pokemon :S Heh, I even said to myself (since I hated pokemon already) "I'll never watch that lame show..."

But then I did watch it, just to see how bad it was. Hooo boy was I wrong Those first episodes with Raging Gohan vs. Raditz totally made the show for me... and 10 years later, I'm still here.

[Dragon Ball Daisuki]

This is how it was for me:

It was 1999. Watching Cartoon Network, after school. Probably around 5:00 PM. I don't remember the episode number or anything, but I remember Piccolo and second-form Freeza just staring each other down; Dende was standing behind a rock, not saying a word. I was mentally freaking out. The image is crisp in my mind. The over-all atmosphere being, "Jesus Christ -- shit's going down."

After that, I didn't see the show for a while, not until some time in 2000 when a friend converted me long-term during a stay-up-all-night fiasco. After that, we would tape it every day after school and discuss the next day during lunch period.

It was the episode when Bulma, Kuririn and Gohan first arrived on Namekk. And of course, I recognized the geography (green skies, blue grass... lollipop trees...) from over a year ago when I witnessed that awesome Freeza/Piccolo fight. So ever since that point, it was like I was counting down, episode by episode, until I got to that fight (I had even assumed Piccolo was the main character), which was my introduction to the series.

And when the show finally DID catch up to that point in the story, and Freeza transformed again, and Goku was eventually brought out, it was just that more bad-ass. Piccolo was the perfect point of reference.

Things fizzled out for me around Cell's arc, and I subsequently discovered the Japanese version and started from the beginning.


</nostalgia>

[Sun_Wukong]

I was in 7th grade, so '98 or '99 and every guy in my home room was talking about some show called DBZ. I asked a guy I had started talking to what time it was on and the rest was history.

My very first episode was the one where Ginyu is looking for replacement members after Vegeta kills most of the Force.

I actually still talk to the guy and we've been friends for 10 years.

[bkev]

Boss Rabbit's Magic Touch funi redub, my aunt's house; however, I don't think I followed the series until a couple years later.

[Super 17]

My first time I watched DragonBall was in either late 1994 or early 1995. My first experience was that it was a fighting show about young adults, since my first episode watched was " Tenshinhan vs. Yamcha". It was Mexico's first run of the episodes, so I only missed like the first 83 episodes.

[NeptuneKai]

Hm, my first real exposure would have to be watching Dragonball Z with my friend on Toonami. Both of us didn't know anything about it and the whole "Ginyu or Goku?" episode didn't help our confusion much. We turned it off a moment later and probably did something equally as awesome...like played with our Pokemon cards.

[caejones]

"Hey, you wanna play Dragonball Z?"
"What's that?"
"It's about these people that are fighting evil looking for the dragonballs, which grant wishes."
"Do they ever get them?"
"Yeah, but they just wish for more powers so they can keep fighting."
"Hmm... O...k..."
"*notices that is wearing green shirt* I guess I'll be the Green Dude! Spirit ball fire!"
"AH! *hides inside a tractor tire*"
*Bell rings*
"... Dragonball fire! You're dead."
"... Dragonball is an attack, too?"
"Ah, no, I meant to say spiritball..."
<Nearly a year passes, and since DBZ occupies a slot near to Vultron's old slot, I catch a few episodes here and there and eventually get enough of an idea to know what's going on... umm... and see the first three movies and start having DBZ-related dreams and then Seaon 3 comes out and everything explodes into a millennium of explosions and violence>

[Velasa]

Daisuki, totally awesome story. Where's your sig come from?

As for me? I was flipping through channels some time in 99, and I stopped on the Scooby-Doo channel (as my little brother and I called CN) because there was a new cartoon on that looked strangely familiar. The first shot I ever saw was Gohan, Krillian and Bulma peering out the ship's window at Nameksei. I watched that ep because it made me think of the awesome RPGs my older brother played. It was strange and kinda interesting. The second time I saw the show, I rambled about at length in the 'what moment made DB for you' thread ^^ I've been dedicated ever since. I would watch it with my brothers every day after school and I taped it obsessibly, I have so many awesome memories of that time.

[Saiyavenger2941]

Heh... I started watching it because Vegeta, at first glance, looked like Kazuya Mishima from Tekken. Obviously, the rest is history.

[Dragon Ball Daisuki]

@Velasa:

It's my favorite excerpt of "This is No Game" -- hands-down the best work of one Jack Handey. Enjoy.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/0 ... 9sh_shouts

[Super Ghost Kamikaze]

Must've been like 1994-6, I was barely more than five. I caught the syndication of Z in the very early morning, 7 AM or so(shut up, that's early for a five year-old!). The dub simply couldn't hide that this was a great show(that, or as a kid I was a total moron), so I loved it until it disappeared off the airwaves for awhile(as far as I knew).

Anyway, few years later it ends up on Cartoon Network, I hear some kids talking about it, and I'm excited to watch it again. I get online, and...well, discovered DBZ Uncensored about then. Start the phase of my life where I'm your stupid young anime fan, wanting to bring down the evil Funimation corporation.

[Vegeta Jr]

I was introduced to Dragonball Z by my brother, I started with the ocean group at around the time it was first aired in the UK (can't remember the exact date), when the Ocean dub ended and Funimation took over I watched that up to the Cell Games it is then that i finally got into the Japanese version and the original Dragonball (Funimation AND Japanese at the same time). I continued to watch the FUNi dub all the way to the end along with the original Japanese versions of both Z and Dragonball. Around 2003 I found out about GT (late I know) where I watched the Ocean group and the Japanese at the same time but never finished watching all of the Ocean. Then in 2005 I watched the whole of the FUNi dub of GT.

[Rory]

I saw an advert for it on Cartoon Network, and it looked hella' badass.
I watched the first episode of Z when it aired, and I was instantly hooked. Dispite me not knowing any stuff like why Piccolo seemed to hate Goku, 'cause Z aired before Dragonball, what an annoying way to start things off!
But, I still thought it was pretty much the coolest thing I ever saw.
Who'd have thought all these years later, I'd STILL be in love with the show.

[aegoku]

The first Dragonball thing that I can remember is an ad from probably 1998. The local UPN station had Pokemon on in the mornings before school, and one day I saw an ad for Dragonball. At the time they were running it in syndication. I thought it looked cool and watched a few episodes. I've been hooked ever since.

[SSJ2bardock]

I began watching it after they hyped it on Toonami in the late 90's and I thought it was awesome even though I couldn't understand most of it.

[DemonKingPiccolo]

I think my first Dragon Ball experience was years ago when my friend's mom thought that I'd be interested in Dragon Ball Z because I had shown only limited interest in Sailor Moon. I remember what episode it was, it was the one after Freeza had been cut in half. That's a boring ep as we all know, so I didn't end up thinking much of the series at that time.

In 2000, I was home after school one day and got bored. So I decided to watch Cartoon Network, and DBZ eventually came on. Me, being bored, potatoed myself on the couch to watch it, and the rest is history.

This is kinda one of those cheesey destiny questions, but I can't help but wonder if I wasn't bored that day, and had decided to go outside instead of stay inside and watch TV, would I be here talking to all of you eight years later? Who knows?!

[The Time Traveller]

Aye, 'twas the summer of '01, Pokémon was just getting boring, we needed some other Japanese show to make us li'l fanboys, after a while Cartoon Network announced Dragon Ball Z, and there was some kid saying he watched it in Japan before the rest of us, that it's about a guy named Z and his side-kick who turns into a giant ape.
It pretty much blew me away, the Pioneer episodes were only shown 4 times (twice a day, the repeated it at 9 but thats when Cartoon Network turned off for those who had cable, so I missed a few episodes).
We all connected with Gohan for some reason, we all grew with him, only watching the crap he did.
I remember crying a few times when I had to miss Z.
I was able to identify it as a really old Cartoon, even at a young age, I knew there was a ton of stuff Japan had that we didn't and vice versa. But when the Freeza Saga ended someone said that they have to animate the next sagas.
Aaaah, to be young again, No internet to tell you what's what.

Then It moved to a new Cartoon Network channel, CNX, that was the most awesome channel ever... Then it became Toonami, they stopped showing skating, swimsuits and Kung Fu flicks, stuck to Anime and Action Cartoons.
Then Toonami dropped everything else they had and replaced it with Backyard Science, a crappy live action show about boring science that no kid would watch, and '90s sitcoms that no one had heard of. It was terrible, why the hell would they do that?! Then Toonami just died and became Cartoon Network 2. It was the biggest crime in Cartoon history, make and awesome channel and assassinate it.

Slowly other channels got more kids anime, I was growing up damnit, I didn't want to watch this stuff, so I started watching the Manga late hour on Sci Fi Channel, Holy shit, Sex, Drugs, Violence, I had seen Akira for the first time on there, and Tokyo Revelations, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Fist of the North Star, I bought a few old Manga VHS tapes. Now I have a huuuuuuge anime and manga collection with stuff from England, America, China and Japan.

What happened to the other kids? They forgot about japanese cartoons!
But I met a guy at college who was as much a fan as I was, we'd talk about the dubbing, the DVDs and the best from America, since they got all the good stuff.

Ok that wasn't as much as my first memory as it was 'why Dragon Ball is the reason I'm an anime fanatic...'

To be honest, Dragon Ball and GT didn't impress me as much as Z until I read the manga. GT never really did impress me...

I know in England and America we have different generations of Anime fans, if you started in the Early '80s you're a Robotech generation, Early '90s the Akira Generation, if late '90s then Pokémon.

[veshira]

I saw a bit of Dragon Ball Z movie... uh, something, and it was the "Pikkoro-san daisuki!" scene. I was 8, maybe even younger. I didn't have Cartoon Network at the time, so I assume it was on WB11 randomly. It was midday though, I think, not the early morning.

Um, then I moved when I was 8, got Cartoon Network, was bored and had no friends, so I watched Garlic Jr fight against Goku and Piccolo, then Gohan kicked his ass. I also ended up watching DBZ at 6 or something on WB11 from the first episode (I was lucky), while also watching it one Cartoon Network some point later. When WB11 stopped showing it, I watched it exclusively on CN. I believe that while I watched Goku go Super Saiyan for the first time, they were showing the Garlic Jr. saga on Rising Sun, every Saturday morning at noon, but I never watched it until they showed it on the weekdays cause it looked boring. :3

[Bura]

I remember being bored, zapping to see what was on TV, and I suddenly stumbled upon the first DragonBall Z episode on Cartoon Network. I watched it out of boredom, and after the episode was finished I wanted to see what happened next. This was me around 11 years old, and I'm currently 21 and still running a fansite, I still rewatch the episodes, create fanart and even think about cosplaying the series.

It's a crazy world and it's pretty amazing how a TV show ruled almost 50% of my LIFE.