New Year's complete Dragon Ball rewatch

[ABED]

The movies are short, so it's not like you're trudging through the same exact story at the same pace. At most, the retellings are 40 minutes. It just seems odd to me that someone would watch Goku meet all his friends, participate in the 21st TB, defeat half the RRA only to see Goku meet his friends again. Oh well. It's your rewatch, so enjoy the way you want to. That sounds passive aggressive, but I swear it was meant in earnest.

Here's my list:
DB 1 - After 13
DB 2 - After 16
DB 3 - After 83
10th Anniversary - After GT or after DB episode 68

DBZ 1 - Before 1
DBZ 2 - After 35
DBZ 3 - Sometime shortly before the Ginyu Tokusentai arrives
Bardock Special - After 74
DBZ 4 - After 107
Trunks Special - After Trunks gives Goku the heart medicine and leaves
DBZ 5 - Before the Cyborgs arrive
DBZ 6-9 - After Cell's defeat
DBZ 10-11 - Right after 18 throws the Tenkaichi Budokai
DBZ 12-13 - After 291
Battle of Gods - After 291

GT TV Special - Either after 64 or before the epilogue of 64. The TV Special is on the same DVD as the last episode of the series so switching back and forth is easy.

[Dbzfan94]

I'm already doing a rewatch myself, so I dont wanna start over but when you guys catch up Id be glad to participate

[KBABZ]

Rewatch thread #1 opens tomorrow, guys.

I look forward to seeing you all there as we discuss episodes 1-5. I'll see if I can dig up some trivia and other fun stuff to put in the OP. And I'm thinking I'll try putting together a roundup of all the filler too, if I can.

I'm you're guy to note out all the filler!

[Dragon Sponge]

Seems like a Fun Idea i think i will go along and rewatch the German Dub on my Laptop, with previus censored Scenes and removed Insert Songs being edited back inside where they belong

[Witty User Name]

Don't wait for the release of the rest of the damn Full Colour manga, just go ahead and read the arcs you haven't in whatever format. Just a suggestion, of course. If you wanna go any further take this to PM 'cause we're straying far too off-topic here.

I'd buy 'em digitally if I wanted to, the problem is money.

Aaaaaand that concludes the off-topic portion of this thread.

Yeah lmao

[MasenkoHA]

The movies are short, so it's not like you're trudging through the same exact story at the same pace. At most, the retellings are 40 minutes. It just seems odd to me that someone would watch Goku meet all his friends, participate in the 21st TB, defeat half the RRA only to see Goku meet his friends again. Oh well. It's your rewatch, so enjoy the way you want to. That sounds passive aggressive, but I swear it was meant in earnest.

Same reason it feels weird to watch the first arc and then follow up with a retelling of the first arc. I get what you’re saying but I think its better served after you’ve had time away from the first thirteen episodes. Even watching all 3 DB movies before or after the series proper since they’re in their own timeline.

10th Anniversary - After GT or after DB episode 68

For the 10th anniversary I would say before or after GT it’s just way too much of a GT movie to watch during Dragon Ball.

DBZ 4 - After 107

Any particular reason for this? Not that it doesn’t work but the whole Goku turning into a Super Saiyan but not really makes me put it just before Goku and Freeza start their 20 episode long fight.

DBZ 6-9 - After Cell's defeat

I feel movie 6 works best after movie 5. It spoils Super Saiyan Vegeta but it’s not exactly a spoiler anymore. Movie 7 I like placing before Cell arrives since Gohan can’t become a Super Saiyan yet. Movie 8 just before the Cell Games and movie 9 after episode 194.




Not that there’s any correct way to watch these movies.

[ABED]

I get what you're saying about the retellings being redundant, but doing it the other way feels odd because you'd be resetting the relationships to an earlier point and that feels odd in the flow of things.

Any particular reason for this? Not that it doesn’t work but the whole Goku turning into a Super Saiyan but not really makes me put it just before Goku and Freeza start their 20 episode long fight.

Because I like watching the films during breaks in the series, not in the middle of the action. After Freeza's defeat feels like a better tie instead of interrupting the flow of that admittedly long battle

I feel movie 6 works best after movie 5. It spoils Super Saiyan Vegeta but it’s not exactly a spoiler anymore. Movie 7 I like placing before Cell arrives since Gohan can’t become a Super Saiyan yet. Movie 8 just before the Cell Games and movie 9 after episode 194.

If I'm being truthful, I was being lazy. I have a more granular breakdown which is this more or less, but the list was already taking too long.

[MasenkoHA]

My own preference outside of corresponding with release dates

Db movie 1- between the pirate cave slog fest crap

DB movie 2- After Baba for aesthetic reasons.

DB movie 3- After episode 132. Abed’s got a good point it ruins the flow watching it in the middle of Goku vs Daimao and putting it between the 22nd Budokai and Daimao kills the cliffhanger

DBZ movie 1- After Raditz 5-parter. It rehashes the essential plot beats without being an out and out retelling and episode 1 of Z is just a much better intro for Gohan, even if you have already seen Z.


DBZ movie 2-After episode 35.

DBZ movie 3- After Vegeta kills Zarbon

Bardock tv special- After episode 74 I guess? I feel like it’s very clearly needs to be watched before the twist that Freeza can transform since Bardock sees Goku facing against first form Freeza which doesn’t actually happen.


DBZ movie 4- Between episode 86 and 87

DBZ movie 5- Before the Cyborgs arrive

DBZ movie 6- After movie 5, like I said it technically spoils Super Saiyan Vegeta but since Vegeta becomes a Super Saiyan during the 3 year training in a flashback...oh well.

Trunks tv special- I kind of think it works after Garlic Jr and before Trunks debut in the tv series . Yeah it ruins the whole “Who is this mysterious stranger who can turn Super Saiyan?” thing but unless you’re coming in blind you already know that so like watching movie 6 before Super Saiyan Vegeta’s tv debut, oh well.


DBZ movie 7- Really any time after 17 kills Gero but before Gohan becomes a Super Saiyan. Like I said just before Cell is good as any.

DBZ movie 8- Just before the start of the Cell Games

DBZ movie 9- After episode 194

DBZ movie 10- Before the 25th Budokai since Goku is still in otherworld

DBZ movie 11-After 18 makes a deal with Satan

DBZ movie 12- Before Pure Boo since the movie just rehashes all the fusion stuff.

DBZ movie 13- After episode 288 or before that 5 year time skip

DBZ movie 14- After episode 291 before GT

DBZ movie 15- After movie 14

10th Anniversary movie- After GT. It’s too much of a GT movie to watch in the Dragon Ball era and the “back to the beginning” is a nice coda for the end.



All personal preference and not some sort of attempt at objectivity.

[ABED]

I think the order also depends on the context of what someone's experience of watching the series is. If they've never seen it, that changes things considerably. However, if you have seen it, which I'm sure everyone here has more or less have, experimenting with the order is a fun idea.

To use Star Wars as an example, if I was watching it for the first time, I'd watch the films in release order since the story beats and call backs in the prequels only work if you've seen the originals. I wouldn't watch Star Wars in episode order unless I had already seen the originals.

[KBABZ]

To use Star Wars as an example, if I was watching it for the first time, I'd watch the films in release order since the story beats and call backs in the prequels only work if you've seen the originals. I wouldn't watch Star Wars in episode order unless I had already seen the originals.

Off-topic (yet again), but when I recently watched it with my GF (who had only seen A New Hope and knew enough about Empire to know what the two big twists were), I did a verbal recap of the prequels and then we started with Rogue One, haha. I think it worked pretty well!

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I'm already starting with watching the series run over the last month or so, i blew through the original series at 4-5 episodes per day from about the end of November up to a few days ago and now moving onto Z though i'm possibly going to watch Kai for that because much of the filler episodes/arcs doesn't interest me like Princess Snake, the orphans, in Hell episode and especially the Garlic Jr. arc though others like some of Gohan's training i.e. the robot episode and Afterlife Tournament i actually like.

[Psajdak]

After years of watching Dragon Ball stuff in all sorts of random ways (and I was fine with that at the time), around 2015 I decided to marathon everything I could find with Japanese voices that was subbed with, well, English subs - everything in order of airing/release.

What I also did was to watch movies, OVAs, and/or specials exactly between the episodes which aired at the time of their initial release, so MyAnimeList, and Eng/Jap Wikiepedia were very helpful for getting correct dates.

I actually wished to included other anime which adapted Toriyama's work, like Dr. Slump, but considering they are even now far from being completely subbed, I only focused on Dragon Ball only.

I was also aware that eventually I would "reach" Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Special, so at certain points I decided to watch them as well, in the same manner - I believe that was mainly when I needed some break from Dragon Ball in general, especially, since I also watched Kai as well, plus it was cool to renew my Toriko / One Piece experience; it was really nice once I finally got to that collaboration special, in some odd way it was like a meeting of destiny (although, Toriko and One Piece actually "met with each other" even before that).

But for me personally, the best thing about this whole crazy way of emulating initial Japanese release order was simply how right, and meaningful OVAs/specials/movies felt to be seen exactly at those points during series.
- No matter how most of them didn't fit into canon, or their placing, or events maybe didn't have sense when compared to what was happening in the episodes which aired at the time, there was still some logic, and order about them.

Characters' sentimentalities, and development fit with those of their canon series selves, and settings in general were obviously inspired, or "what if-ed" by arcs in series.
Watching them earlier, or later, it just seemed either, well, too early, or regressive, especially when it comes to Vegeta.

Unfortunately, there was a special, or two which at the time were still not translated, I believe they were some year end specials which were released in early 90s, I also didn't watched few DBZ related episodes from second Dr. Slump series, since, well, I considered them primarily Dr. Slump material, and since I couldn't see the rest of Dr. Slump, there was no need to see only those few episodes - kinda weird reasoning, but what can I do...
Not sure exactly why, but when I was at Kai version of Majin Buu Saga, even though I was almost done, that is, I just finished episode when Goku and Vegeta get out of Buu's body, I just decided to skip the rest of this series, and continue with following Dragon Ball title.
Shame, because I missed to hear how kid Pan sounds with Shino Kakinuma's voice - I guess like her Kai Videl, but maybe there were differences in her performance...

During that marathon I avoided anything about DBZ Movie 15, and Dragon Ball Super, so when I reached them, F movie was already availaible as Blu-ray rip, and Super series ended with airing, so I didn't have to wait for anything.

Anyway, it was one crazy ride, but it definitely showed me that I enjoy franchise when I watch it in that manner, or in general anything else.
It is definitely how I approach media these days, but when it comes to Dragon Ball itself, from now on I will focus only on the future, be it anime, or games, again with focus on airing/release order, but as for old titles, maybe I will do it again when/if the rest of Toriyama's anime get translated, but who knows when will that happen - otherwise, I will just rewatch certain arcs, together with their OVAs/movies/specials/whatever.