How did you get into DBZ?

Xyex · Post by **Xyex** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:23 am

I first saw it when it was still in syndication. ABC aired it at, like, 5 or 6 am on saturday mornings. I got up that early one Saturday cause I wasn't feeling well I think.... Anyway, I flipped the TV on not expecting to see anything good on that early and here I see two kids (well, what looked like two kids, cause of krillin's size) running around somewhere with blue grass and green sky and with weird looking people around. And flying and fighting and energy blasts. It was awesome, I loved it at first sight. Taped a few episodes and caught a few more but not many, and then it vanished from ABC.

And then I saw CN's first Toonami commercial for it in July of the year it started its CN run. I saw it and I thought "Huh? They look... GREEN SKY PLANET! AWESOME! I GET TO SEE IT FROM THE START!" and yeah, I watched it religiously after school from then on, re-runs and all. Only missed episodes of the Buu Saga out of everything, I think. And only due to things outside my control while I was living in Florida. And now I've got DBZ fics out the wazoo up on FFnet. XD

Magica · Post by **Magica** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:49 am

From old topic from last year:

It had to have been about 1998ish, about 14 maybe? I was talking to my friend on the phone and I turned the TV on and there was DBZ. The Yamcha baseball episode was the first episode I've ever seen of DBZ. While I was on the phone with my friend she watched it on her end, and I think we might've cracked jokes at it. I don't remember.

Watching it, I first thought Vegeta's named was "Vegina." Later on I was web surfing in high school for more information and my firend and I laughed on the phone when I told her that Bulma and Vegeta later has kids named Trunks and Bra.

Duo · Post by **Duo** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:35 am

1997, Saiyans arrival on Earth, Toonami. Followed the complete run on CN through the end of GT.

2003, started buying Movie DVD's. Watched Japanese version occasionally and didn't like Goku's voice.

2004, decided buying the Anime would be impractical and expensive, so I checked out the Manga. I have never been the same fan since. Caught up to the Viz releases about the time DBZ 19 hit shelves, bought every new volume with 24 hours of it hitting shelves until it was done.

2005, started picking up all kinds of random used series DVD's and watching them all in Japanese. Fell in love with the Anime again. I don't watch the dub anymore, unless it has Pioneer on the cover and is one of the first 3 movies.

Currently...not reading or watching as much as I used to, and not really playing any of the games frequently, but still very much in love. DB = best fictional story of all my life.

Shenron · Post by **Shenron** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:09 am

Something like 1987-1988, Dragonball on the french TV. But I was much more fond of Saint Seiya, and I stopped watching after the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai.
I went back in the series in...1999 (?), with the beginning of the Android Saga.

In 1995, near the end of DBZ in France, guessing I could never see the end on TV, I bought the 3 last japanese mangas. I was right, the show stopped only 12 or 15 episodes before the end.

Then I purchased all the mangas, in french this time, and even now I read the entire saga about once a year. But I can't watch the TV series anymore ; I find it often ugly, and boring most of the time.

Remix · Post by **Remix** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:29 am

I accidentally caught the first episode of Dragonball Z while I was in New York for the Summer of 1999. I was hooked on DBZ for years after that.

Now I'm not quite into Dragonball Z anymore. Even though I like to make fun of it and make silly redubs, it still holds a special place in my childhood.

God, I miss not knowing anything about DBZ.

NativeGirl · Post by **NativeGirl** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:05 pm

When I was 4 or 5 years old, my parents gave me the Nes game of Dragonball (without knowing that it was dragonball at the time! I Just loved the box lol! and it was a kind of pirated game called Dragon Power O_O)

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/423/

It was my first bond with Dragonball...if we can say...lol

skatezeppelin · Post by **skatezeppelin** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:07 pm

I first saw the show when pioneer released the tree of might of video at my cousins when one of his friends brought it over. After that started watching it on WB at 6:30 in the morning.

SaiyaMel · Post by **SaiyaMel** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:36 pm

A classmate in college - she suggested i check it out. before she mentioned it,, i never even heard of "Dragonball Z" let alone Dragonball.. so i started out watching some eps of the World Tourny saga on YTV..and twice at that time it rolled back as it got to the Buu arc - first to the Arrival of Raditz and then the Cell games. it kinda went from there and i became a fanatic..

Hironobu Timex · Post by **Hironobu Timex** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:19 pm

I got into it when it was in syndication, then I saw the first two seasons entirely on Toonami. My first DVD ever was Pioneer's Dead Zone.

In late 2002 I stopped watching because I was frustrated with the dub and not being able to afford the DVDs with the Japanese version. I didn't start watching again until recently thru the orange boxsets.

Mr. Announcer · Post by **Mr. Announcer** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 9:10 pm

Hmm...It was a long time ago and my memory is crap but I think it was combination of seeing it on the international channel and the dub on whatever channel it was on before its Toonami days... I was young and this was a cartoon so naturally I kept watching but I was especially faithful because it was a continuous story and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. So that was how I became a fan.....

As to how I became a total DB freak, my family was taking a trip to Japan in the summer of 2001 and at the local train station near my Grandma's house there was this bookstore with a whole load of manga. I had recieved volumes 2 and 3 earlier so I decided to continue on with the Dragonball manga since I was unfamiliar with the story before Z. Of course, I couldn't read Japanese for crap, but still I was completely hooked and came home with no less than 18 new volumes of the manga. I was just so impressed with Toriyama's amazing and original artwork and the refreshingly straightforward plot, so much that I actually went to the trouble of learning the language myself just so I could read it. I just could not get enough of this series for years and years.

Now I think my love for the series has come down to safe levels, but unfortunately One Piece had to happen and get me all hyped up over anime again. I <3 Dragonball.

BrolytheLSSJ · Post by **BrolytheLSSJ** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:45 pm

Well it all started when I was little around 8 years old and first watched Dragonball and I thought it was awesome with the adventures, humor and cool theme song. Then soon came DBZ, I watched it on tv before school every morning on Fox and after school with newer episodes on Toonami. I was watching Pokemon a lot at the time and I couldn't decide which was better cuz I loved them so much but DBZ I got into second and of course I outgrew Pokemon but DBZ always stuck with me cuz of its awesome plot and cool, powerful characters. I became even more of a fan by geling my hair like Goku for school everyday and some people would laugh but others thought it was kinda cool lolz...I used to jump around and do moves with my friends whenever we watched it at our house and got so hooked on it while we talked about it a lot at school. Its definately my favorite anime of all time and I doubt any other one will ever rise above it. Not only that but I got a bunch of action figures from Toys R Us and did my best to get all the ones they had at Burger King too. I even collected some of the cards but that got boring so I sold em. Yeah my brother was really into it as well but not quite as much as I am which is perfectly fine since we still enjoy watching and playing the games together. So far I own both of the new remastered uncut seasons and all 13 movies that were redone even though I maybe getting the Blu-Ray Broly set too. Oh and I forgot to mention, I drew a lot of DBZ back then too but its obviously not as good as some of my newer drawings.

wolf · Post by **wolf** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:52 pm

When Toonami first came on (around when I was in middle school 98ish), I was watching Sailor Moon at that time. Then out of nowhere Dragonball Z came on one day and I wached it and I was hooked (that and Yamcha). Then I found out later Dragonball was an anime by searching on Yahoo and ended up finding this site and PlanetNamek (which is now dead).

SuperSaiyan3Goku · Post by **SuperSaiyan3Goku** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 2:24 am

Another one of these? Aw, what the hell.

I started watching Dragonball way back in '98, when the dub was being shown on Cartoon Network. I probably started to watch previews of it, and I just thought it was cool-looking. I probably saw it every day at the original time slot of 5:00 or 6:00, whatever the hell it was, and got hooked. I don't remember what series I saw first, but it was Dragonball or Dragonball Z. Later, I thought of buying the action figures after I probably saw a few of them in the Beckett Magazines and thought they looked good. A few years later, I have 40+ Dragonball Z/GT DVDs, about 25 or so figures, a few games, and a crapton of memories.