For those of you who saw DBZ first...

[Polyphase Avatron]

What was the biggest surprise/unexpected factor in the original Dragonball?

For me, it was the lack of flight. Since I had started with Z, I just took flying for granted, as something that every character could always do. The lack of flight in most of Dragonball made for a lot more tactical and strategic variety in the fights, which was pretty interesting.

[ArmenianPepsi]

Well for years my only real exposure to DB was through Kai. Hopefully that counts.

Anyhow when watching through OG DB, then going back to Z, the deaths of Yamcha, Krillin and Tien are a lot more impactful. Simply due to the fact that you actually get to spend time to know the characters. You actually grow to care about them. So when they are slaughtered, it actually means something.

If you watch Z first with no context, you just watch a bunch of characters you dont know nor care about get killed, and are supposed to just roll with it when we're told that they were good people. But exposition is no substitute for actually seeing these past events. It's even worse in Kai since all the filler "Getting the gang back together" scenes are cut, so you know even less about them.

[MasenkoHA]

Probably the prominence of certain characters. When I first saw Z I never did understand why there was a talking pig and a talking cat hanging out with them. And I didn’t really understand the point of Yamacha and Tien and Chaozu (admittedly didn’t really get super into Z until Goku and Freeza were fighting on Namek so I only caught bits and pieces of the show at first for the first 80ish episodes) I also really didn’t understand Bulma’s deal.

So seeing these characters as they were introduced in Dragon Ball definitely helped with perspective of their roles and relation to Goku.


Also this is more of the Z dub’s fault but since Goku was portrayed as so straight laced and Super Hero-y for Z’s dub seeing Goku act way more dumb as a child
was kind of surprising.:

[precita]

I pretty much knew everything in Dragonball due to reading summaries online. But I did like seeing how the whole King Piccolo arc played out and leading to Piccolo being born, especially with them originally being considered demons.

[MasenkoHA]

I pretty much knew everything in Dragonball due to reading summaries online. But I did like seeing how the whole King Piccolo arc played out and leading to Piccolo being born, especially with them originally being considered demons.

He was still considered a demon in Z. One of Slug’s henchman identifies him as a demon clansman in Z movie 4. He tells Gohan he’s going to make him into a demon clansman in episode 8.

[Matches Malone]

The introduction of the Z warriors and how their relations developed with one another over the course of the story.

Some of the plot twists like Bora, Krillin, & Roshi's deaths.

How good it was all around, be it the story, characters, action, etc.. It made me wish I saw it first before moving on to Z.

[KBABZ]

I had a funny double-instance! First was how different the storytelling was, where fighting is prominent but it's not 90% of everything going on in an episode like in Z. There's hardly any fighting in the Pilaf Arc and in the RRA arc it's fairly absent until they finally meet up with the local villain, outside of Muscle Tower, RRA HQ and Baba. There's a lot more focus on travel and character, especially in RRA because you follow along from Goku's perspective the entire time and the supporting cast changes every 10 or so episodes. This is in contrast to every other arc where you bounce around from Krillin to Trunks to Roshi to Vegeta to Piccolo and so on.

AND THEN when I finally was able to watch the entire show, I was SHOCKED at how so very "Z-like" the Daimao Arc was! After everything I just talked about, the Daimao Arc has dramatic stakes, a long battle against an arc villain that destroys cities, and multiple concurrent character stories that feels like something you'd expect from the Z side of things. This is why I've always said that Z "truly" begins when Daimao shows up, in particular because that's the first time you have a direct "Villain Arc" like with the Saiyan, Namek, Android/Cell and Buu arcs where everything is about defeating the latest villain.

---

Another facet that's surprising but appreciated is how little ki-throwing there is. At the start of Dragon Ball there's much more focus on hand-to-hand melee combat, and most special moves like the Wolf Fang Fist, Jan-ken and Nam's diving move fit that mold too. Ki moves like the Kamehameha are expert moves you only use in a pinch and drain a significant amount of your energy, so you only used those very rarely. This was the norm even up to Raditz (Makangosappo!), but come Namek throwing them around and spamming them as generic, un-named attacks became much more common. This really changes the personality of the fights alongside flying, because now you can fly about and throw attacks at each other without even getting close. Fights in Z spend a lot more time with the two combatants being far apart from each other.

[Psajdak]

Some of the plot twists like Krillin, & Roshi's deaths.

I still remember when I first saw that episode where Kuririn is shown being killed for the first time.
It was incredibly shocking.

Nowadays it may be a meme, just like Yamcha's death, but before Internet became a thing, such events were actually really something big.

[Matches Malone]

I still remember when I first saw that episode where Kuririn is shown being killed for the first time. It was incredibly shocking.

I was so surprised it took me a minute to remember he's in future arcs so he'll eventually be back. Same thing for Yamcha, even though I didn't know who he was, his death was still impactful, as it really showed just how outmatched the heroes were without Goku. It also helped that the characters took his death seriously.

[Psajdak]

I was so surprised it took me a minute to remember he's in future arcs so he'll eventually be back. Same thing for Yamcha, even though I didn't know who he was, his death was still impactful, as it really showed just how outmatched the heroes were without Goku. It also helped that the characters took his death seriously.

I think what really "helped" in those arcs was that in Piccolo arc Shenron was killed, and in Saiyan arc Piccolo was killed, and with him Kami, and everything just felt hopeless.

[Matches Malone]

I think what really "helped" in those arcs was that in Piccolo arc Shenron was killed, and in Saiyan arc Piccolo was killed, and with him Kami, and everything just felt hopeless.

I agree. Another thing to take into account was Toriyama's writing style, no one had plot armor. Whether it was Goku or Oolong, anyone could lose a fight or even die. You went into each arc blind because no one was ever safe, anything could happen to anyone. Goku lost his first two main fights in the story (Roshi and Tao). That's how you keep your audience invested in the story. Even GT managed to get a few surprises in by permanently removing Buu and Piccolo from the story, which was later followed by #17 not being revived and Goku leaving with Shenron.

[KBABZ]

I think what really "helped" in those arcs was that in Piccolo arc Shenron was killed, and in Saiyan arc Piccolo was killed, and with him Kami, and everything just felt hopeless.

I agree. Another thing to take into account was Toriyama's writing style, no one had plot armor. Whether it was Goku or Oolong, anyone could lose a fight or even die. You went into each arc blind because no one was ever safe, anything could happen to anyone. Goku lost his first two main fights in the story (Roshi and Tao).

Four if you count Tien and Daimao!

[Matches Malone]

Four if you count Tien and Daimao!

I didn't mention them because Goku did eventually defeat Tao, so it wasn't 4 back to back defeats. I do agree that both were major defeats, with Tien being unexpected after Goku already losing the first tournament.

[Vijay]

What was the biggest surprise/unexpected factor in the original Dragonball?

For me, it was the lack of flight. Since I had started with Z, I just took flying for granted, as something that every character could always do. The lack of flight in most of Dragonball made for a lot more tactical and strategic variety in the fights, which was pretty interesting.

It was the relationship of Goku with rest of the cast (Bulma, Yamcha, Krills, Tien, Piccolo most of them). As we all know, characterization is one of AT's strongest point & it was surprising to realize how much those characters were developed & "grow" alongside Goku.

[Forte224]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the fight choreography. It was very entertaining and unique. It also kept me on the edge of my seat because I had no idea what kinds of tricks each character had up their sleeves. Oh, and specifically with the tournaments I was so tense because it wasn't lives on the line, meaning I knew everything would turn out ok because that's how TV shows go, but instead it was the title on the line so it was less predictable how it would go. I was so heartbroken when Goku lost.

I think too it was one of the first times I realized that bigger doesn't always equal better in storytelling. I specifically remember thinking sure, Goku could get completely obliterated by even Raditz at this point, but it didn't matter because he wasn't fighting Raditz, he was fighting Roshi Jackie Chun. It's such a basic concept now but back then the fact that I was enjoying it more than a new Super Saiyan transformation was kind of mind-blowing.

[ZeroNeonix]

Going from to to original Dragon Ball was jarring the first time. No flight, no transformations (except Great Ape, which is more like a werewolf than a Super Saiyan), very few ki attacks, and the tone was completely different. It was less drama, more comedy. And some of that comedy was rather risky. Bulma showing off her "panties," after Goku had removed them looking for her balls. That was not something I was expecting to find. It was censored in America, but a surprising amount of it got past the censors.

[PurestEvil]

I technically did not see DBZ first, but I did see DBZ Abridged first.
It felt like I was watching a completely different anime from what I expected. Like, I knew shit like Super Saiyan and flight were not things back then, but I certainly found the, uh, gags a bit jarring while watching the first three episodes.

[90sDBZ]

I was surprised by how villainous a lot of Goku's future allies started out, particularly Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu. They're really honourable guys in Z, so seeing them as villains really surprised me. And Krillin being a jerk surprised me.

Also King Piccolo killing Shenron. GT aired in the UK before OG DB, so I'd seen the Shadow Dragons already. The fact that King Piccolo could kill Shenron really shocked me, and made me wonder how he'd return.

I also knew beforehand that Krillin would die in DB, but I didn't know how or when. I was waiting for it to happen. I wandered if it would be against Blue, or Baba's Vampire, or even against Chiaotzu at the Tournament. When it did happen I was shocked by how dark and sudden it was. The foreshadowing during the restaurant scene was incredible. Goku finding him dead is the closest to bringing me to tears that DB has ever come.

[FoolsGil]

Actual martial arts, ki attacks not often used, beam spam not being a thing.

[goku the krump dancer]

I think the novelty of just how big the world of Dragon Ball gets eventually.. Like I remember watching Kid Goku skip along with out a care in the world and thinking to myself "Dang this guy has no idea that in the future he's gonna be a fighting a galactic emperor on a dying planet". It was so cool to me, just seeing how Goku eventually came to meet everybody he deemed a friend and the humor was plus too!