Your Earliest Memory of the Dragonball Series

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.
User avatar
Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 286
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:57 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California
Contact:

Post by Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi » Thu Apr 05, 2007 7:19 pm

My first memories of DBZ? I remember seeing DBZ back in kindergarten. It was season 3's first run through, and since I was so young, and it was my first time seeing anything like DBZ, I had no idea what was going on. All I remember was thinking that Freeza was a girl, and that Son Goku was named "Super Sam."

Jive Talka
Newbie
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 4:38 pm

Post by Jive Talka » Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:40 pm

Kindergarder? Jeez I'm getting old. :oops:

User avatar
Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 286
Joined: Fri Jul 21, 2006 10:57 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California
Contact:

Post by Mayuri Furiza Kurotsuchi » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:11 pm

Jive Talka wrote:Kindergarder? Jeez I'm getting old. :oops:
Your not old, I'm just young. Fans like me are pretty rare from what I can tell.

User avatar
SaiyamanMS
OMG CRAZY REGEN
Posts: 975
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2004 6:08 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Post by SaiyamanMS » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:37 pm

Ah... I'm not sure if I've answered this before, but I'll answer it anyway.

My earliest memory of Dragonball was a random episode of season 2. There was this guy with a strange outfit and spiky hair (Vegeta), fighting some fat pink monster (Dodoria) in a similar outfit. The sky was green and the grass was blue and I was like "WTF?".

It just happened to be on tape since it was airing in the timeslot after Pokemon (Which I'd been recording in the mornings so I could watch it when I got home from school).

It wasn't until the late first form Cell stuff that I got into the series.

User avatar
wannywan
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 151
Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 7:46 pm
Location: Northern Ireland
Contact:

Post by wannywan » Fri Apr 06, 2007 5:23 am

I remember reading the reviews of the SNES games in Gamesmaster magazine in '94 and thinking the characters looked pretty cool!

Then in '96 or '97 in France I saw packs with about 6 or 7 seven models in them, and remembered them as the ones from the games magazine.

It took until about 2001 until I really got into the show.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSPpkxkjpPg]Picto-hame-ha![/url]

User avatar
Sun_Wukong
I Live Here
Posts: 2052
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2004 3:57 pm
Location: Ellicott City, MD

Post by Sun_Wukong » Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:45 pm

1999, when Toonami first aired Season 3. I checked it out because it seemed like I was the only one not watching it. I believe the first episode I saw was when Ginyu and Jeice are recruiting the "new" Ginyu Force

User avatar
Adamant
I Live Here
Posts: 3371
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 1:02 pm
Location: Viking Land

Post by Adamant » Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:50 pm

1995 or so, when a friend had bought a japanese gameboy multicart that included the first gameboy DBZ game. Of course, I never understood how to play it (it's a menu-based fighting game that's completely impossible to understand if you can't read japanese), but it was there, and it was what kickstarted my belief that DragonBall was solely a video game franchise.

User avatar
DBZGirl
Newbie
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 7:16 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Post by DBZGirl » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:20 pm

Lesse... My first memory was back in 95 or 96, when I was 3 and 4. Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were on at the same time, and it seemed like it was on whenever I turned on the TV, so I hated it. I thought it was about a little monkey boy who could turn from a kid to an adult to a big giant ape. I thought DB and DBZ were one show, so I was very confuzed. I started acually watching the show when it came on when I was four. I thought the Dragon Balls were bird eggs. And I thought Vegeta's name was Virginia. (Remember, I was only 3 and 4 at the time!!) I finally started acually understanding DBZ when I was about 6 and 7 years of age. And now, I'm 15 years old, and still LOVE it! :)
*Can almost always be found running through streets singing a random DBZ song*

Summoner Julia
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:16 pm
Location: England
Contact:

Post by Summoner Julia » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:23 pm

My earliest memories are from when I was 11, and was watching Cartoon Network on a regular basis. The first thing I actually saw from the series was Goku glueing himself to his ship, but I wasn't really watching at the time.I also have a vague memory of seeing someone (most likely Vegeta) attacking namekians, but that is so vague its probably not worth counting. The first full episode I watched was "Goku, A Super Saiyan?". So I guess after the ship incident my earliest memory was Goku being super fast and hitting Recoome in the gut ("Sorry, I saw an opening that seemed to scream out "attack." So, I did.")
Chala Head Chala!

User avatar
Kaze no Mune
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm
Location: Alton, Illinois

Post by Kaze no Mune » Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:09 pm

I think it was August or September of 1997 when I first started watching DBZ on Toonami. I was instantly hooked and started taping the episodes after they did another time through the second and first seasons.

I'm pretty sure my earliest memory would have to be watching some random part of the Saiyan Arc or the Namek Arc and thinking the show was the most amazing anime (at the time I actually knew what anime was, sort of) I had ever seen. Even to this day, I still get the same feeling watching it. But then again, a lot of shonen anime do that to me. :oops:

But I guess my most concrete memory was getting almost nothing but DragonBall VHS tapes and the first DBZ VHS tape that Christmas.
[b]PSN: Mune-sama[/b]

Add me for some HD Remix or SF4.

User avatar
TriforceCaptre
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 181
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:57 am
Location: Augusta, ME

Post by TriforceCaptre » Fri Apr 06, 2007 9:12 pm

I have no idea of the exact year, I dont even remember what grade I was in (I know it was Elementary school). Anyways, my earliest memory is of Bulma inside a pink submarine looking for a dragonball under water on Namek or fake Namek. I didn't know at the time and am not sure now since I havnt seen all of those episodes yet. During that scene a friend asked me to come out and play. I don't know why but I've always remembered that.
"There's ten thousand reasons to survive, but you only needed one to die." -CKY-

Smooth Criminal
Beyond-the-Beyond Newbie
Posts: 374
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 8:00 pm

Post by Smooth Criminal » Sat Apr 07, 2007 3:26 am

Goku's bare ass on Snake Way.

User avatar
LaRésistance
Beyond-the-Beyond Newbie
Posts: 349
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:13 am
Location: Paris, France
Contact:

Post by LaRésistance » Sat Apr 07, 2007 4:56 am

I remember watching Dragon Ball for the first time back in 1988 (I was three). The weird French opening with all the bright colors caught my eye so I watched the entire episode. The rest is history as they say.
The résistance dies but never gives up.

User avatar
nwoo_2002
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:09 pm
Location: UK

Post by nwoo_2002 » Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:35 am

For me, I would say around late 99 to early 2000. I was waiting for Pokemon to come on but it wasn't on for another half an hour. So I started channel surfing until I came to some show on 'CN'. Some green guy had just died or disappeared and I thought, "Hmm, this looks interesting". Didn't watch it again until the Ginyu got to Namek and then I was hooked. When it got to the end of series 2 they began showing re-runs, so thats when I became a real fan. If you count the Japanese version being a separate version, I got into that after watching a clip of Gohan going Jin 2 against Cell, that was about 2002.

User avatar
shannarafan
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 144
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:52 pm
Location: Texas

Post by shannarafan » Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:05 am

Summer of '98, Nappa flying at Gohan in the "Nappa Invincible?" episode and Piccolo yelling at him to attack. I had no idea what it was but I liked it, instantly. In fact, it's just about the only anime that's ever appealed to me.

User avatar
zoiozazu
Not-So-Newbie
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:25 pm

Post by zoiozazu » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:16 pm

The first contact that i made with DragonBall was with a SNES game. Then, in 1999, in brazilian Cartoon Network, DBZ opened. I remember those kids downloading episodes on the school's computer.
Drabon-fans, help the saiyan kid! Vote Goku for Votatoon!
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com.br/votatoon/

[b][color=green][GREEN TEAM][/color][/b]

User avatar
SuperSaiyan3Goku
Advanced Regular
Posts: 1463
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:14 pm
Location: In the middle of nowhere, across from Planet Vegeta

Post by SuperSaiyan3Goku » Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:38 am

Earliest memory of DB? Probably watching the Saiyan Saga on Cartoon Network back in either '98 or '99. I was in the living room, with my mom, and I was about 7 or 8. I think the episode was when Goku was getting killed by the Special Beam Cannon, and I still remember telling my mom about what they do with Goku after her died, reviving him with the Dragon Balls. :)

User avatar
Komati
Not-So-Newbie
Posts: 52
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:50 pm

Post by Komati » Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:52 am

I saw it first time as porn, I was 10, and my friend said that Dragonball Z was awesome and all, so I searched for it on LimeWire. Everything that showed up was porn, but I didn't understand it so I downloaded it. I thought it was awful, so I stopped watching DB after a 5 min. clip. But when I was 12 a comic had a free Dragonball book with it. That was sweet but i couldn't catch the story since i read it same way i would normally read a comic book. It took me 3 weeks before i red it properly. :oops:

User avatar
EricM
Beyond Newbie
Posts: 110
Joined: Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:49 am
Location: Princeton NJ

Post by EricM » Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:20 pm

Whenever DBZ was syndicated in my area, either on UPN or WB, back in 97(?). It was on at 5, 6 or 7 in the morning. I remember Gohan getting chased by a dinosaur.

Post Reply