Just how well known is Dragon Ball/Z with the general public?

[Hellspawn28]

I think people in their 50s and older have heard of DB, but they probably haven't seen much if any of it.

My parents know about it (even if just through DBZ) and they're well into their 50's. In fact, DBZ and Pokemon are pretty much the only anime they know.

For me, they knew what Totoro, DBZ, Pokemon and Digimon was. I would watch violent anime as a kid like Vampire Hunter D and they were like "Yeah it those cartoons from Japan. He likes them a lot". They just view stuff from Japan to be on the same level as Godzilla and Totoro.

[Cure Dragon 255]

In Latin America DRAGON BALL IS FREAKING HUMONGOUS! Almost everyone knows about it and most people love it.

[Thanos]

I dunno. Nowadays I make Dragon Ball references to random people without knowing if they're familiar with it--usually they are. Can't say that's always been the case.

[DrakenballP]

I think the majority of people do. My 7 year old cousin, my girlfriend who has no idea about Anime or much else involving TV, my grandfather, my mother. Everybody knows these things it seems.

[Generico Garbagio]

I dunno. Nowadays I make Dragon Ball references to random people without knowing if they're familiar with it--usually they are. Can't say that's always been the case.

I do the same. I wrote "This isn't even my final form" for a product description at work in a report I had to hand over to financial directors and nobody seemed to think about Dragon Ball.

It wasn't a finished product so it was completely justified.

[Lord Beerus]

The only multimedia franchise from Japan that more well known than Dragon Ball is Pokemon, which really says a lot.

[Basaku]

Grandmothers can recognize toys/merch with Dragon Ball characters. That's as good as you can get and only a handful of animes ever managed to attain that status worldwide, Sailor Moon and Pokemon being the other two.

Once Piece is 'huge', but it didn't become part of the global pop culture the way the 'big three' did

[PelicanDynasty]

Grandmothers can recognize toys/merch with Dragon Ball characters. That's as good as you can get and only a handful of animes ever managed to attain that status worldwide, Sailor Moon and Pokemon being the other two.

Once Piece is 'huge', but it didn't become part of the global pop culture the way the 'big three' did

Gonna have to disagree with the Sailor Moon bit. No way in hell anyone in my family would ever recognize Sailor Moon characters or even know what that is. I'm not so sure about DB either, Pokemon is really on its own level when it comes to public knowledge

[Cure Dragon 255]

Wow, dude I dont mean this in a rude way but GOD that's a bit of a hard thing to believe. Even my 60 year old mom knows who Sailor Moon is.

[PelicanDynasty]

Wow, dude I dont mean this in a rude way but GOD that's a bit of a hard thing to believe. Even my 60 year old mom knows who Sailor Moon is.

Lol no worries that's not rude at all. It's the truth though.

[DBZAOTA482]

Wow, dude I dont mean this in a rude way but GOD that's a bit of a hard thing to believe. Even my 60 year old mom knows who Sailor Moon is.

I don't think it's that hard to believe. Sure, the series was huge during the height of the anime craze but it's popularity died down a lot relatively speaking.

[Hellspawn28]

From what I've seen that Sailor Moon's popularity died off after 1999 and saw a recent return of popularity not too while ago. Dragon Ball was still very popular over the years (Even though it did die down in the mid-late 2000's).

[precita]

Pokemon is mainly known for the games over the anime, aside from the very first season because of the huge fad it was. Pokemon is Nintendo's #2 selling franchise right after Mario.

[SaiyanGod117]

It was known for the anime too, up until what was ever after the sinnoh region, as the anime promoted the games and was widely popular by itself.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Aside from FUNi's adaptation, I think it's pretty niche. The dub did pave the way for relatively accurate versions though, & those are relatively popular nowadays. As ABED said, not exactly mainstream (currently at least) but still pretty big for anime. As for the Pokemon comparison - the thing to note here is how marginalized the anime industry is to Hollywood & its animation, versus the relatively huge stake that Nintendo & Japan in general have carved out for them in video games.

A lot of ppl dont know this, but the Japanese video game market (Pokemon included) is so huge that a lot of the dubs for games are comparable to many smaller Hollywood video game productions in terms of budget. One can't really deny Japan's influence in general video game industry; sadly, however, that, too, is pretty much being (typical) appropriated by Hollywood. It's rather sad IMO, & while I can't truly blame the artists involved, the nature of the business does sort of frustrate me, & I wish others would talk about it.

[DBZAOTA482]

Aside from FUNi's adaptation, I think it's pretty niche. The dub did pave the way for relatively accurate versions though, & those are relatively popular nowadays. As ABED said, not exactly mainstream (currently at least) but still pretty big for anime. As for the Pokemon comparison - the thing to note here is how marginalized the anime industry is to Hollywood & its animation, versus the relatively huge stake that Nintendo & Japan in general have carved out for them in video games.

Dragon Ball's about as niche as Call of Duty.

[omaro34]

Most guys I know heard about DBZ. But Z is all most of them watched, they haven't seen the original Dragonball, GT, or even Super. Most would remember the Namek arc where Freeza fought Goku.

A lot of people at the gym everywhere I go wear DBZ shirts while they work out, so that should count for something. Many athletes know about Dragonball, some even tweet about it once in a blue moon, or others reference it during an interview. Gobert is one of the best bigs in the NBA:



Some hip hop artist reference Dragonball in their songs too.

All of this increases the general public's awareness of Dragonball.

[SansrivaaL]

As for me... about 8 out of 10 people that I know are familiar with Dragon Ball, there are even some who despite not knowing what Dragon Ball is they know who Goku is, yes... quite weird, I once had a conversation with my friend and I asked her if she watches Dragon Ball and said she doesnt, then along our talk I mentioned Goku and she was like "Oh Goku! I know him! the guy that dyes his hair yellow and eyes green right?

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Aside from FUNi's adaptation, I think it's pretty niche. The dub did pave the way for relatively accurate versions though, & those are relatively popular nowadays. As ABED said, not exactly mainstream (currently at least) but still pretty big for anime. As for the Pokemon comparison - the thing to note here is how marginalized the anime industry is to Hollywood & its animation, versus the relatively huge stake that Nintendo & Japan in general have carved out for them in video games.

Dragon Ball's about as niche as Call of Duty.

Only if you think DB is some hype WWE-type stuff. Most people are familiar with DB the way that Backstroke of the West viewers enjoyed Star Wars.

[omaro34]

I think people in their 50s and older have heard of DB, but they probably haven't seen much if any of it.

My parents know about it (even if just through DBZ) and they're well into their 50's. In fact, DBZ and Pokemon are pretty much the only anime they know.

It depends where an older person grew up. My parents were immigrants and don't have the slightest clue about Dragonball. Even if they seen it during the 90's or 80's, they wouldn't remember.